Author: JaniaJania

Throwback Thursday to Damian Lewis in A Touch of Frost

Before he hit the big time in cable TV, Damian did some smaller, lesser known roles in British television. The role of Adam Weston in a feature-length episode of mystery drama Touch of Frost may not be a role that Damian is particularly proud of, given how disdainfully he spoke of it at the NY Times Talk in May 2014.

Nonetheless, I’d say the role begs remembering, if, for nothing else, to give us a picture of Damian at 25. According to Damian, roles such as this one were the few available to British actors in television in 1996. It was either Merchant-Ivory-esque period drama or stories of the struggles of the underclass left in the wake of Thatcherism, both “classes” of roles Damian would have been uniquely qualified to play, but only later. First, he had to build up a resume with things like Touch of Frost. So here’s Damian at 25, a Shakespearean trained thespian and, they ask him to get down to his skivvies. Okay, he’s still doing parts that get him into his skivvies some 20 years later, but, hey, who’s counting. As Bobby Axelrod would say:

Those who can, do.

Continue reading “Throwback Thursday to Damian Lewis in A Touch of Frost”

Throwback Thursday to London, The Goat, and Meeting Damian Lewis

Damianista’s Note: JaniaJania and I were extremely lucky to see Damian Lewis in Edward Albee’s The Goat, or Who is Sylvia? and meet with him after the performance exactly six years ago. So, on the sixth anniversary of this fabulous experience, why not join JaniaJania today on a trip back? Enjoy!

The times I can see Damian in person are few and far between. It was at Damianista’s urging, i.e. pretty much taking me by the hand and flying me out to NY, that my first “sighting” and “meeting” even happened. (I have no idea what those quotes mean or why I used them, just go with me here) I vacillate often between “I’d be fine if I never saw him in person again, good riddance to that level of stress-filled gut-wrenching fangrl angst” to “Fine, I’ll see him on stage or something, but no reason to talk to him privately, is there? Can’t we be normal people for once and just go home and not talk to him?” to “OMG, when are we going to see him again, in what circumstances, for how long, can we possibly have it go longer, and what if…etc. etc. etc.” Truthfully, I spend about equal parts brain energy on those three states of fangrl-ness. Quite similar, in fact, to the brain energy allocation of an average 17 year old girl around prom time. Continue reading “Throwback Thursday to London, The Goat, and Meeting Damian Lewis”

Another Turn: A Homeland Fan Fiction

Damianista’s note: This fan fiction was originally published in 2020 as part of Countdown to the final season of Homeland.

The final season of Homeland is premiering February 9 and, I for one, am ready to watch. Think what we will about the story of Carrie Mathison post-Brody, we can all agree that Homeland was the show that had the most impact on Damian’s fame around the world and his career going forward. The show certainly had not a minor impact on us either, your friendly bloggers of all things Damian! So even if Brody is long dead and is not likely to return even as hallucination, Homeland remains one of the big topics of conversation and writing on this blog.

The first teaser for Homeland has been released, and the show had its TCA panel, where we learned a bit about the upcoming season from friendly intrepid reporter Diane Gordon. You can read all her live tweets from the Homeland event here: Showtime #TCA20: Homeland. Continue reading “Another Turn: A Homeland Fan Fiction”

Throwback Thursday to Damian Lewis’ SAG-AFTRA Interview

525464194So desirous are we to learn about the elusive nature of creativity that we’ll watch and listen with bated breath when someone who has been successful at living life as a creative person has something to say about the process and the choices he’s made to get to where he is today. One of such moments was Damian Lewis chatting at the SAG-AFTRA Foundation in 2016 with New York Magazine’s Hollywood editor, Stacey Wilson Hunt, about his career as an actor.

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Throwback Thursday to a Lesson in Rhetoric: Damian Lewis as Antony

To be filed in the category of “This is a guy who makes you want to go back to school”, we learned and reported (on our lovely sister site damian-lewis.com) that Damian’s version of Antony’s funeral speech from Julius Caesar, for The Guardian’s video series Shakespeare Solos, was featured in a seminar on rhetoric. This wasn’t an avenue for literary criticism or drama theory, but a newsletter on effective public speaking.

How is speaking any different from writing and reading, you may wonder? Well, there are components to classical rhetoric, when dissected, can show you what makes one speech different from another. Such an analysis would reach your brain (or at least attempt to). Alternatively, we can talk about how a speech makes you feel. Granted we’re not seeing much great oratory from our current elder statesmen, so examples are few and far between. But, there was a time, wasn’t there? In our not too distant history, when a leader spoke, it did a heart good to hear, didn’t it?

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