Damian Lewis Quotes

I do revel slightly in the fact that I am what I am - an English, middle-class, public-school-educated bloke. There is a reputation with that of being slightly stiff, but whoever gets to know me will see some other element - whether it be vulnerable or silly or camp.

I'm from really humble beginnings. I've never been this Hollywood diva, but you get caught up in what you're pretending to be.

The best thing an actor can bring to a role is himself - that's no secret.

When you are cast for a role, it's because of everything that makes you who you are in that moment in time. No one else has that. That's a unique, powerful thing to hold.

I don't think I'm like any of the characters I've played - they're all really far from who I am.

Who I am on stage is very, very different to who I am in real life.

I wanted to be famous for my music and my talent, and I always wished I could cut it out when I left the stage.

I'm not a star, I'm an actor.

Class is real. It can't be faked.

I'm a real actress.

Every part I play is just a variant of my own personality. No real character actor, of course, just me.

One of the strengths I derive from my class background is that I am accustomed to contempt.

I would much rather be a bad Luise Rainer than a second someone else.

You're looking at a middle-class guy. I am who I am.

Before I was known, I would go on stage and pretend I was other people. Once I pretended I was mentally handicapped. It was really wrong. One time I was a bad magician. And one time I pretended I was a Christian comic.

People look at me, and they go, 'You're white, you're smart, you must have went to college. You must have grown up with money.'

I want to play trailer trash; I swear to God.

I grew up listening to Bernadette Peters, Patti LuPone, and Angela Lansbury, so I grew up wanting to sound like Patti and Bernadette. What I realized, though, is that I can't sound like that, and what makes their performances magical is their uniqueness.

Clint Eastwood, to me, is Clint Eastwood. He's great at being Clint Eastwood. But, I don't know how to be that guy. I just don't know how to be one person.

You have a dramatic portion of your television program and you treat it dramatically, and then you have a comedic portion of your program, and you treat it differently. Why do you change who are between the two pieces? You're the same person. Just go.

I've had to spend an awful lot of my life trying to pretend I'm not posh. Although once I open my mouth, I rather let things out the bag.

People wanted me to be like the Madonna, the white nun, you know, and that's not me. But I'm no villain.

If you're white working class, it's very easy to caricature the elites, and if you're elite, it's very easy to caricature the white working class.

I don't want a grand villa in a rich suburb alongside white people where many of my former comrades choose to live. I would never betray my roots in that way.

People assume that I'm an aristocrat, but I don't really feel part of any class.