The affair
dominic west is no stranger to acting. in fact, the 45-year-old already has 28 years’ experience behind him. and despite his bad-boy roles in the past, including his most recent role as the adulterous noah solloway in the affair (2014-current), dominic’s actually a pretty humble guy.
he lives in england with his family when he’s not filming in the us. dom’s first brush with acting was at age nine, when he appeared in a local theatre production in his hometown. in 1988, when he was 19, he wanted to be “different” and spent four months herding cattle in argentina. in his very first professional stage production in his early 20s, dominic fell off the stage into the audience, adding that “it was deeply humiliating”. one of his first auditions was in front of british funnyman john cleese of fawlty towers (1975-1979) fame. “he said, ‘can you do animals?’ and the next thing i know, i’m leaping around the flat. i didn’t get the part, but i think i gave him a laugh,” dominic recalls. dominic returned to argentina in 2000 to do some travelling and he worked as an acrobat for about a year. he was offered a role in game of thrones (2011-current) in 2012 but turned it down because he didn’t want to spend so much time away from his family. rumour has it dominic was set to play the warlord mance rayder. in 2013, he trekked his way across the south pole for charity. he joined true blood (2008-2014) actor alexander skarsgård, british royal prince harry and a group of wounded soldiers to highlight the plight of war veterans. it took them six weeks to complete their journey. when he’s not busy filming, daredevil dom enjoys paragliding. he says that it helps him relax. had he not made a success of his acting career, he would’ve most likely gone into the family construction business. nb! see more on p59.