Damian Lewis has admitted that he nearly turned down the role of Nicholas Brody in Showtime's Golden Globe-winning drama Homeland.
The Band of Brothers star felt that his experiences working on NBC cop show Life had made him wary of signing up for another major American TV role, claiming that Life was “at quite a lot of personal cost, from a family point of view.
“That sounds a bit melodramatic, we're all still together,” he added, “but it was long hours working with Helen sitting in the house with the kids.”
Lewis admitted that he “wasn't prepared” for the “workshop hours” on American TV.
He added: “So I said to my agent: 'Only if it's extraordinary, and if it's on cable TV, so it's a five-month commitment rather than a ten-month commitment'.
"Unbelievably fortunately, this thing [Homeland] came my way, and I very nearly said no to it, for all the reasons I've just explained."
Lewis feels that Homeland "just seemed brilliantly representative of a slightly uncertain, paranoid world we live in now.
"It's a bold claim for one hour of TV, but...they convinced me that these were all themes that they wanted to pursue. And they sustain it.”
Homeland continues on Fridays on RTÉ Two.
