Category: Musings

In celebration of Mad Men’s 17th Birthday: Damian Lewis Loves Don Draper!

Hello, everyone! This is a post I wrote in 2015 when I said farewell to Mad Men, my all-time favorite TV show. This week marks the 17th anniversary of the show premiering on AMC. And the fact that I share some Mad Men love with my favorite actor provides a unique opportunity to share Damian’s love for Mad Men here again. Hope you enjoy it.

“Mad Men. I watch endless episodes when I should be working.”

-Damian Lewis

Don Draper immortalized in front of the Time-Life Building on March 23, 2015, NYC source: Damianista

Oh, yes!

Damian, I cannot thank you enough for loving Mad Men; because, first, you give me the chance to write about something that I LOVE very deeply, and second, it is so much fun to share this love for Mad Men with you! Continue reading “In celebration of Mad Men’s 17th Birthday: Damian Lewis Loves Don Draper!”

Book Review: Meeting Damian Lewis

Never touch your idols: the gilding will stick to your fingers.

Il ne faut pas toucher aux idoles: la dorure en reste aux mains.
― Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary

How I love when art gets meta: when a writer or artist has the self-awareness and genuine capacity to make fun of themselves. That’s what we mean when we say the writing is “honest”. There’s no agenda to convince or win over the reader, just a need to show, everything, even the warty not-attractive bits.

With her first novel, Meeting Damian Lewis, Christine Wilson has succeeded beautifully in that effort. Continue reading “Book Review: Meeting Damian Lewis”

In Case You Missed It: An Exclusive Fan Fun Interview with Damian Lewis

We’re twinning with our vests!

I am back from a week-long fantastic trip to the UK following Damian Lewis and his brilliant band from Stroud to Poole to Norwich to Cambridge in the second leg of his ‘Mission Creep” UK tour. I cannot wait to share with you my report from the gigs, fun backstage shenanigans, and a few surprises in the days and weeks to come.

But first…

Interviewing Damian has been a huge dream for me. In fact, I have been able to interview him a couple of times in the years past. But because they happened spontaneously, even though Damian wanted to be generous with his time, he was about to go to his next interview or his next appointment that we had to be very quick. And there were always people around. Continue reading “In Case You Missed It: An Exclusive Fan Fun Interview with Damian Lewis”

From Dick Winters to Steve McQueen: The “American” Damian Lewis

“This sounds absurdly pretentious, but the American Damian, I’m sort of oddly comfortable with him.” – Damian Lewis

A Guardian article from July 2015 talks about Brits versus Yanks in Hollywood:

“The invasion of British and Irish leading men in Hollywood has now gone beyond a joke for many in the American entertainment industry. First noticed some time in 2011, the trend was initially dismissed as a novelty: an interesting phase that would pass, rather than as a threat. But this summer actors and directors are calling for action to mobilise American drama teachers and schools to counter it.”

So Hollywood has finally taken notice and is now somehow mobilizing to defend its territory against the British invasion 😀 Well, maybe it is too little too late at this point? I mean, it is not that the Brits are coming, but they have already arrived. Besides, Vanity Fair says “victory is assured” in the video clip below, with fabulous ginger alert at 0:29, about which I blogged about earlier here! Continue reading “From Dick Winters to Steve McQueen: The “American” Damian Lewis”

Damian Lewis and My Homeland

If you have been following this blog for some time,  you certainly know about my obsession with Homeland and Brody in particular. And so you probably think this post is yet another one about my all-time favorite fictional character…

Well, you’re wrong! 🙂

This post is about Damian Lewis and My Homeland – the country that I was born and raised in: Turkey. I have been inspired to write this post in London in August 2022 when Damian signed the set list I lifted at his first live music gig in Turkish:

“Tesekkur, Bahar.” (“Thanks, Bahar.”)

Continue reading “Damian Lewis and My Homeland”