Another year, another birthday. Damian Watcyn Lewis turns big 5-0 this week! We celebrate the occasion all week long on Fan Fun and today we are offering a gift of quotes! Fifty of them to be precise. From all the people Damian has worked with, loved, and touched through the years.
ENJOY!
1) “He was always the person most likely to make it. He was someone who would make the most of a break. He always had his eyes open. He was primed and ready. But he’s also very easy going, one of the guys.” Rashan Stone, March 2002
2) “I really wanted an American actor to play the part, but Damian came in and blew us away.” Meg Liberman, September 2011
3) “Lewis has portrayed both marvelous people, like war hero Dick Winters in HBO’s Band of Brothers, and despicable, like double- (sometimes triple-) agent Nick Brody in Homeland. Together with Bobby Axelrod, they are three of the most compelling American characters of this new Golden Age….But what is surprising is that Damian Lewis is not American at all.” CBS News, February 2017
4) “He was obviously always going to go far. He was playing a very sombre, dark, humourless man, but he’s very funny between takes. He’s a fantastic mimic.” Christopher Menaul, September 2013
5) “Getting on set with Damian was like playing again. I’d come over to give him a note after a take, and he’d practically know what I was going to say. He knows when I’m not happy and I can tell by looking at him when he’s about to lose it. But it was a tantrum-free set. We shared quarters in a converted monastery in the Wye valley, and every night one of us would be cooking up pasta and sticking the rushes on.” Gareth Lewis
6) “You have to make a movie every week and Damian and Sarah are on every page of the script. So, every eight days they’re making a little feature and it’s grueling the amount of work the two have to do. And I couldn’t be happier or luckier to have them both in my cast.” Rand Ravich (Executive Producer of Life), September 2008
7) “Acting on the show has been a lot of fun, primarily because most of the acting I get to do is with Damian, who I have felt a great deal of camaraderie with and I like to think we have similar approaches to the work. We are serious about the work but we don’t take it seriously, which translates to being able to relax, have a good time, and get the work done. Any time you get a chance to work with live animals and have horses on sound stages and swim with coyotes, how can you not be having a good time?” Adam Arkin, April 2008
8) “There’s a lot going on beneath the surface, and yet outwardly he’s not doing anything…He’s got a great stillness that’s very compelling.” Sarah Shahi, February 2016
9) “He’s from the Royal Shakespeare Company so of course that vibe of working, in a way, in front of a live audience in continual non-covered takes was, I think, liberating for him. It really played into his strengths and he really appreciated the chance, I think, to be able to work through an emotion without needing to break it up with coverage or insert shots.” Lodge Kerrigan (Director of Keane), January 2013
10) “It was just so deep and moving, and it really gave a sense of the layers Damian can play…From that point on, we never looked back.” Bert Salke, Chief of Homeland’s Studio FOX 21, October 2012
11) “You know… he’s lovely, otherwise I wouldn’t have chosen him. If I don’t think he’s lovely, we’re all screwed.” Helen McCrory, April 2017
12) “Damian is my best friend. Why? Because he’s the most available person to me! No, it’s because I love him to bits and because I respect his opinion and because he’s funny.” Helen McCrory, February 2018
13) “Every time Claire and Damian are onscreen together, the whole show elevates.” Alex Gansa, October 2012
14) “..two people sitting in a room can be totally involving, especially when it’s Claire Danes and Damian Lewis.” Lesli Linka Glatter, September 2013
15) “I can throw hard and fast and he’ll always catch the ball and return it in surprising ways.” Claire Danes, September 2013
16) “I was really impressed by his devotion to his wife and kids….He made real sacrifices to keep that part of his life—the life part of his life—intact and happy. And he adores Helen and is transparently proud of her power and depth as a person and actor. You gotta love a man who loves a strong woman.” Claire Danes, February 2016
17) “He’s just so smart and charismatic, you never could be sure what machinations were ticking behind the facade. But of all of the cat-and-mouse business, he was very clear about what the rules of the game were in the actual act of playing the scene. We could afford to delve into the darkness and dishonesty in the land of make believe, because we were so open and direct with each other as actors. To have that communication and consideration with a partner-which translates into trust—is a beautiful and rare thing.” Claire Danes, February 2016
18) “There’s a tremendous amount of intensity on our set but he’s incredibly disciplined and a wonderful leader. He’s someone who makes people feel good about themselves, feel good about the day. He supports the whole team like a quarterback. I’d go down to the bottom of the sea in a submarine any day of the week with Damian.” Mandy Patinkin, September 2013
19) “They both [Damian and Claire] have magnificent voices. I don’t think you will be seeing ‘Homeland, the Musical’ anytime soon, but you never know; we may end up doing something together one day.” Mandy Patinkin, June 2013
21) “As soon as I met Damian Lewis, I knew he was right. He’s an old-fashioned romantic at heart and I know he’ll always look after my girl.” Iain McCrory (Damian’s father-in-law), April 2014
22) “Damian’s full of beans. He’s classically trained, but what he’s also got this Celtic thing going on. It’s not just all neck up. He uses his body. But what was really unusual about him was his dynamism. And he’s bright. You don’t normally get all of that in one package.” Emma Fielding, March 2002
24) “THAT is Brody, I’ve never met him before — stop it!” Jennifer Lawrence, 2014
25) “It seemed to me that number one essential for casting Henry VIII was charisma. It was absolutely clear to me from the reading I did and from what Hilary said… this was an extraordinary, charismatic man.” Peter Kosminsky, Director of Wolf Hall, January 2015
26) “Damian is able to take characters who do unlikable things and make you care, make you feel for them. People have been stunned by the range Bobby Axelrod and Sergeant Nicholas Brody. Bobby’s a character that’s about charisma and swagger, but one of Damian’s strengths as an actor is his unknowability. Whatever he’s putting out to the world, there’s something else going on behind his eyes. And that’s the one thing Brody and Axelrod have in common.” David Nevins (CEO of Showtime), May 2016
27) “Damian’s character is brilliantly cerebral. Everything’s fast and light and facile, and I feel like I’m doing a ballet with him.” Maggie Siff, January 2016
28) “There’s something kind of Johnny Appleseed about him, where he’ll do a take and let it go, do a take and let it go. He keeps things light and moving, and I read that as real confidence.” Maggie Siff, 2015
29) “I respect him so much. I am so lucky to be working with him. He’s a trained actor. He’s incredibly curious. Off camera he’s a charming Brit, with that dry humor. He keeps the American accent going all the time. It’s only when his wife calls that the British comes out – and it feels like he’s faking it.” Malin Akerman, May 2016
30) “Going to work each day is amazing and Damian is a charming Brit who’s just whip-smart and funny as hell.” Malin Akerman, February 2017
31) “Damian is really funny. British, quick wit, charming sense of humor.” Malin Akerman, January 2018
32) “He’s super-intelligent, super-engaged, really fun to play with.” Paul Giamatti, February 2016
33) “The fact that anything gets done — that looks even remotely usable or serious — is actually astonishing….We [fool] around a lot.” Paul Giamatti, February 2017
34) “Actually, I suggested to Damian the last time we were together that he and I should do The Odd Couple. The Odd Couple, I think, is not a bad idea. We could switch the parts off. I could be Felix and he could be Oscar.” Paul Giamatti, February 2017
35) “To go on that ride with those words, with that director, letting us tear it up, and to do it with such a great and generous actor as Damian, was a gift. Still feel pretty lucky.” Kelly AuCoin, December 2016
36) “He’s great and he’s hilarious. He’s an amazing actor but he’s also a great leader. He can be the funniest guy in the room, but also very serious. He sets the tone on set and everyone follows. Except maybe Costabile. They raz each other a lot. Hilariously, I might add. But, really, Damian is as much of a leader, in a different way, as Axe is.” Kelly AuCoin, April 2020
37) “He can be perfectly mercurial as well. Which frankly, I love. Damian isn’t always “open for business” in the same predictable way every single day and I love that. It’s the same thing that makes him a great actor. You have to figure him out day to day. It makes him authentic. Like the best kinds of people. He can wear his life on his sleeve that way and some days you have to go to him in a slightly different way because he’s working with some other color or life is affecting him some way. And so he brings all that reality to his work as well. It’s actually one of my favorite things about him. What you’re seeing is not just this conscious effort on his part to give you what you want from him. You’re getting the actual dude. You’re getting all the colors.” Stephen Kunken, April 2020
38) “Damian loves to laugh.” Brian Koppelman, June 2017
39) Koppelman: “As soon as we got on the plane last night, he became a British flight attendant.”
Levien: “He became a very elegant man… full service was beautiful to watch.”
Koppelman: “Quite a mixologist too.” January 2018
44) “Having a partner as generous as Damian makes the experience extraordinary because I can only be as good as my screen partner allows me to be.” Asia Kate Dillon, June 2017
45) “Because Damian has such an ability to listen and react truthfully in the moment, I’m able to be totally absorbed in that world and that is a great joy.” Asia Kate Dillon, June 2017
46) “My wife would have been very proud…She wasn’t an actress and had no connection with the theatre other than she loved it, and we took Damian and our other kids to the theatre when they were young…Damian started acting at prep school, and we would go together to watch him in his school productions and we both thought he was very good. My wife was very supportive of him becoming an actor.” Watcyn Lewis, January 2013
47) “It’s fun every day. Well, Damian is a big presence on set… he’s a great captain… yeah he’s great to play with and you know he’s somebody who’s playful, he likes to play.” – Louis Cancelmi, November 2020
48) “He’s very confident, the room sort of stops when he’s in it. ” Matthew Macfadyen, October 2017
49) “It was wild, I’ll tell you… Damian is a very attractive man but not in this film [Run This Town]. He really transformed for the role, for the character. And his mannerisms, his voice… his accent is impeccable, because he is English, and to hear him with Rob’s tonality was… he did a really good job I thought.” Nina Dobrev, March 2019
50) “I remember being just stunned how he could just come in and deliver… it’s like a very quick switch that he turns on… He then also has this ability to access his heart, his emotion and out of that, and you just go “wow”. Nicole Kidman, October 2017
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