Lewis says boarding school ‘violent experience’

DAMIAN LEWIS, the Old Etonian actor, has said he found being sent to boarding school a “very violent experience”.

Lewis said that children who are sent away from home to be educated are left with an experience that “defines you emotionally for the rest of your life”.

The son of a City broker, he was born in St John’s Wood, London, and began boarding school aged eight.

Lewis, who has two children with actor Helen McCrory, said he would not send his own children to boarding school at such a young age.

“I went at eight and I think that’s very hard. You go through something which, at that age, defines you and your ability to cope,” he said.

“There’s a sudden lack of intimacy with a parent, and your ability to get through that defines you emotionally for the rest of your life. It’s a very violent experience in those first few weeks. It’s just, ‘ boom’. ”

Lewis also said he had been “surprised” when former pupils of a state school tried to stop him attending its 50th anniversary celebrations.

The Homeland actor was invited to help mark the golden anniversary of a north London comprehensive earlier this year. But a former pupil of Acland Burghley in Tufnell Park unsuccessfully tried to block the actor’s appearance, claiming his privileged background made him unsuitable. A petition attracted just 124 signatures. Lewis told The Sunday Times Maga

zine: “I was surprised there was so much feeling, but in the end, the petition was very small. I think she missed the point of the occasion.

“It was a celebration of community. Acland Burghley is a performing arts school with a special status for that, and I am a well-known local actor.”