It’s just after 7.30am in Australia when Damian Lewis pops onto my laptop screen, zooming in from his home in London.
The esteemed film, television and theatre star appears a little tired, owing to his busy schedule and the time difference, but he’s no less charming because of it.
Keeping warm, wrapped in a grey knitted cardigan – very British, very stylish – the 55-year-old is looking much more relaxed than he does in his latest movie, Fackham Hall, where, for the majority of the film, he’s dressed in either a three-piece suit or country tweed.
The role of Lord Davenport is quite a departure from the usual, more intense characters Lewis has taken on in his decades-long career that has made him one of Britain’s most-loved leading men.
“I’ve been waiting all my life, Natalie, all my life for an opportunity like this,” Lewis tells nine.com.au, with a dry smile.
“The truth is, it’s really difficult to write good comedy and so I don’t end up doing very much of it. And this really tickled me. This made me laugh out loud.”
Fackham Hall – one must be careful when saying the title aloud – is not your typical manor-house murder mystery.
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Done in the “clowning spoof tradition”, Lewis says, the movie takes on the upstairs-downstairs genre but with a twist.
“We wanted to take the grandeur of those much-loved big shows like Downton Abbey or Gosford Park,” Lewis says.
“Any of those sort of big country house, murder mystery-type movies and poke fun at it.
“If you look closely, you might detect a bit of pomposity in the seriousness with which these films take themselves.
“We’re all fans of them and we love them as beautiful, escapist sort of fantasies, really, because it’s how a very small percentage of people live.”
Lewis plays Lord Davenport, the family patriarch and head of Fackham Hall. When he and wife Lady Davenport (Katherine Waterston) face the prospect of losing their stately home due to a marriage mishap and lack of a male heir, chaos ensues.
One of his co-stars is Tom Felton, best known for playing Draco Malfoy in the original Harry Potter films. In that franchise, Felton acted alongside Lewis’ late wife, acclaimed actress Helen McCrory, who died from cancer aged just 52 in 2021.
When a mysterious orphan-turned servant arrives at Fackham Hall, all hell soon breaks loose, including a murder.
There’s also lots of jokes about marrying cousins.
“I really enjoyed spitting out my food on Katherine [Lady Davenport],” Lewis says, referring to one of the film’s many slapstick moments.
“Weirdly, she quite enjoyed it too. I think I hit her in the face once, actually, which I was deeply apologetic for, when I was still trying to get my aim right.”
The movie’s grand location and its characters are all very posh and so are its characters, with Lewis admitting his own privileged upbringing (he went to Eton) helped in how he approached Lord Davenport.
“I suppose it might have [helped]. He wasn’t alien to me in any way.”
Lewis has one of those clipped English upper-class accents, but he’s also one of the few actors who can take on another accent flawlessly.
His role as American prisoner-of-war-turned al-Qaeda terrorist in Homeland remains one of his most iconic and career-defining.
Lewis won an Emmy for playing Nicholas Brody and to this day, 13 years after his time on the show came to a shocking end, many are surprised to learn he’s actually British because of his impeccable American accent.
He played New York hedge fund manager Bobby Axelrod on Billions and one of his earliest, but most memorable, roles was that of American World War II hero Dick Winters in Steven Spielberg’s epic mini-series, Band of Brothers.
“I’ll take on any accent and I enjoy it,” Lewis says.
“I enjoy the process of figuring out how to make it real and authentic.”
But there’s one he’s yet to try: the Australian accent, one many actors have tried, but failed, to master.
“You guys say that when the Brits try Australian accents, they just end up sounding cockney,” Lewis says.
“I’ve got good recent memories of working with Guy Pearce [in A Spy Among Friends], so maybe I’d just end up sounding like Guy if I tried to do it.”
Another of Lewis’ decorated roles is that of King Henry VIII in the television adaptation of Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall novels.
He played a handsome, and slender, version of the Tudor monarch in the first series before transforming into the grotesque figure Henry VIII became known for in his latter years.
With such a varied and prestigious resume, does Lewis have a favourite of his own characters?
“No, I love all my children equally, that’s how I feel about it,” he says.
“There’s always an interesting challenge and there’s always a big love affair when you’re involved in something that you are enjoying doing.
“I really enjoyed playing Bobby and Brodie and Henry the King and Dick Winters – they all required very different things.
“I just enjoy the process of discovering what those things are. So, [a] big, big love affair with all of them.”
When Wolf Hall premiered in 2015, Lewis said he looked to the current generation of royals – namely Prince William and Prince Harry – when finding inspiration behind his portrayal of King Henry VIII, highlighting the brothers’ desire for “normality”.
Lewis’ decorated career has brought him in close contact with the modern royals and he’s worked alongside King Charles III for more than two decades.
In May, Lewis is due to support the monarch when The King’s Trust celebrates its 50th anniversary.
“He does amazing work through the Prince’s Trust and now the King’s Trust, I’ve been an ambassador for nearly 20 years,” Lewis says.
“I enjoy the work that they do and I enjoy meeting the people whose lives it affects so positively.
“It has a great record of pre-empting and intercepting people and helping people out of tricky situations and I just love the immediate, very gratifying results of that.”
Lewis was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire – the highest-ranking Order of the British Empire award – in 2022 in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to drama and charity.
He and his late wife raised more than $2 million during the coronavirus pandemic through their charity, Feed NHS, which saw high street restaurants give food to frontline healthcare workers.
The investiture took place at Windsor Castle with King Charles handing Lewis the medal. He had previously been made an OBE in 2014, in a ceremony presided over by Prince William.
Lewis was recently named by The Times as being one of the big stars within the “celebrity bubble around the King” ready to support the monarch’s charity milestone, alongside Sir Mick Jagger, Sir Elton John, Sir Idris Elba, Claudia Winkleman and Sir Gareth Southgate.
“When I first met the King, he was patron of the Royal Shakespeare Company, so he used to come backstage and greet the cast if he came up to Stratford-upon-Avon,” Lewis says.
“We would wait in line, meet him and he would have a conversation.
“I think he’s always really appreciated the arts, and he enjoy the skills of creative people. It’s always been very enjoyable to talk to the King.”
Any nerves Lewis once had about meeting royalty have since “long gone”.
Lewis is a busy man and when he’s not acting, he’s often on stage performing songs from his 2023 debut album, Mission Creep.
He’s been musical for most of his life and learned classical guitar at Eton. Since his schoolboy days though, Lewis has expanded his musical repertoire and on-stage experience and even busked around Europe.
He began writing songs years later and his first album was partly inspired by his wife and their two children.
His second album is due out in June, with the first singles to come from next month.
“[The album] is probably a little bit rowdier than the the first one,” Lewis says.
His music has previously been described as a mix of blues, folk, jazz and rock.
“I don’t really know how to categorise it in a genre in particular, so I won’t bother trying to do that, but I hope people like it.”
Does he have any plans to tour Australia?
“That would be wonderful,” he says.
Fackham Hall is in cinemas now.