‘Homeland’ star Damian Lewis, wife Helen McCrory talk about balancing parenting with stardom
One of Britain’s most popular couples is “Homeland” star Damian Lewis and Helen McCrory of the “Harry Potter” series. In the upcoming issue of British Vogue, the pair’s struggle to balance their careers with the importance of being great parents.
Damien Lewis as Nicholas “Nick” Brody and Claire Danes as Carrie Mathison in Homeland
“I don’t think there’s any substitute for doing it well and doing it right. And doing it right is just being there,” Lewis said.
The 41-year-old actor is the father to two children – Manon, six, and Gulliver, five. During the joint interview with Vogue, Lewis recalled how Gulliver told him: “D’you know, Dad? When you’re away, sometimes I look out of my bedroom window at night and I call your name, and I cry.”
“I wrestle with this.”
Wife McCrory, age 44, starred in 2012’s blockbuster “Skyfall” and stated how important the “role” must be to even be away for shorts periods of time.
“It’s got to be a damn good offer to coax me away from them [the children]. Which is probably why the projects I’ve worked on since they were born have been such interesting ones.”
Lewis is usually away to Charlotte, North Carolina nearly half of the year to film “Homeland,” which is headed into the third season. The actor reiiterated the family comes first and they have no intentions of leaving London and heading to LA.
“As much as we may look like power-hungry, mad people, we are very committed, first and foremost, to living our life,” said Lewis.
“LA is interesting but it’s not one of the great places. It’s an inferior city to London.”
Lewis described his life in London, where he grew up, as close to his “fantasy” of “the happy, slightly chaotic, noise family” that has “sunday roats, and friends coming round and walks with the dog”.
Get a copy for yourself as the issue of British Vogue hits the shelves.
No production dates for season three of “Homeland” have been released, but the series was renewed back in October. McCrory can next be seen on the Civil War TV mini-series “To Appomattox” where she plays the wife of General Grant.
