DRAWL AMERICAN
DAMIAN LEWIS is the former Eton public schoolboy whose performances are so convincing audiences in America think of him as one of their own.
After playing a suspect war hero in Homeland and a corrupt financial whizzkid in Billions, the Englishman has become one of the most well-known faces on US telly.
Add in his faultless accents during an Easy Company tour of duty in Band of Brothers and in shortlived cop drama Life and it’s easy to see why he has been so easily adopted across the pond.
When filming scenes as Marine Sergeant Nicholas Brody in Homeland or, more recently as hedge fund hustler Bobby Axelrod in the Showtime series Billions, Damian fully embraces North American life.
He goes to ball games, wears “sweats” and “sneakers” and calls women (ironically) “broads”.
But the Shakespearean-trained actor admits he is revelling in his transatlantic career, flitting between blockbuster telly and the London stage with ease.
The accent he adopts for the character he’s playing isn’t dropped when the filming stops. He keeps it going when talking to the crew and catering staff and stays in full American drawl for interviews, taxi rides, grocery shops and restaurant orders. But not everyone is impressed. Damian said: “I once did a US TV interview in my American accent and somehow it was seen by quite a few of my friends back in England.
“There were several irate text messages. ‘You’re British. Stop talking like an American,’ they said. But it has become second nature to me now and I am happy to do it.
“Having said that, if I am with Brits, I come out of it pretty quickly.”
At 46, Damian is still fit enough to turn out “irregularly” for five and eight-a-side football teams near the north London home he shares with actress wife Helen McCrory and their