Damian Lewis and Shakespeare

In the talk with Stacey Wilson Hunt at SAG-AFTRA Foundation last week, it is notable that Damian never had straight up formulaic answers for any of the excellent questions asked by the interviewer. He seemed to put some real thought into all his answers. Something struck out as requiring further exploration from that interview. When asked about the best advice he’d been given as an actor, Damian turned it around into a story of his biggest professional regret. Damian tells us that he was once offered a major role in a major Shakespeare production to be staged at the very major National Theatre by, as you can imagine, an appropriately superlative artistic director. In sharing this story, he provided a perfect instance of the notion that our biggest lessons come from our biggest mistakes.

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Damian Talks Career and Craft at SAG-AFTRA

Creativity is a strange beast. At its narrowest definition, it is the skill of creating something original and new using nothing but one’s imagination. But that would exclude a lot of us from the act of creativity, wouldn’t it? How many of us are capable of conjuring up some idea, art, or thing completely from scratch? An impossible task, even for the creative geniuses among us. Nothing is truly original. It’s all about processing what has come before and presenting it in new and “creative” ways. “Creative problem solver” is one of those phrases you see on resumes a lot. Try telling a mathematician or a software engineer that what they do doesn’t involve creativity and you’re bound to get an earful in exacting detail of just how wrong you are. Thus, not an easy thing to get a handle on, creativity.

So 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. Thus we have Damian Lewis chatting at the SAG-AFTRA Foundation with New York Magazine’s Hollywood editor, Stacey Wilson Hunt, about his career as an actor.

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Damian Lewis Created a Monster

 

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I’ll admit to not being the most educated person. I spent most of high school just trying to pass the time and get out with a diploma. I wasn’t a bad student, but when you decide on beauty school in your sophomore year, suddenly AP History and three hours a night of homework seem kind of like a waste of time. And I certainly didn’t spend my two study halls a day reading up on history, math or science. Now, as an adult, I am revisiting these subjects with a newly-found appreciation. I am learning things as a 36 year old woman that most people learn in high school. The history of The Tudors has been my newest interest, and I have Wolf Hall to thank for opening me up to something new. Continue reading “Damian Lewis Created a Monster”

Billions Season 1 Dining Guide: Eat like a Billionaire or without Breaking the Bank

source: Showtime
source: Showtime

I know I am a broken record but Billions is a dream coming true. Not just because it is one of the most, if not the most, smartly written show in the history of TV. Not just because it is bringing my favorite actor Damian Lewis to my screen. But also because it is being shot in NYC, my favorite place on earth: Let me put it this way. If I had not blogged about Damian Lewis, I would probably have blogged about New York, in particular about its fantastic dining scene since my husband and I are crazy foodies. He loves to cook and we both love to eat. That is why NYC dining scene making some memorable appearances in Billions, from some of its “special occasion” restaurants to yummy hole-in-the-walls to cozy neighborhood joints to dining landmarks and take-out places, makes me SMILE big!

So, here is our Billions dining guide as a thank you to the show for showcasing the dining capital of the world in the best way possible: Some of these places are my NYC favorites and I believe, being the forensic fan that I am, I have been able to figure out almost all of them using hints from the scene as well as Google and, hey, Google earth, too! 🙂 Continue reading “Billions Season 1 Dining Guide: Eat like a Billionaire or without Breaking the Bank”