I had never been a huge Claire Danes fan-girl. I liked her okay for years, and then the Billy Crudup stuff went down (Crudup dumped pregnant Mary Louise Parker for Danes), and then there were some years where Claire’s career kind of suffered and I didn’t care, and then she did HBO’s Temple Grandin. And that completely changed the way I thought about Claire. Before that TV movie, I never realized that Claire was simply that GOOD of an actress. She was really, really wonderful in that role. And then after that, Claire joined up with Damian Lewis for Homeland, which was one of the best new shows of 2011. Even Pres. Obama name-checked Homeland as his favorite show – it’s about terrorism and patriotism and real-world espionage, but it’s also a really wonderful character study, and Claire is really, really good in it. As is Damian Lewis. And Mandy Patinkin, who is basically the coolest mofo ever.

Basically, I’m saying that nowadays, I’m kind of in love with Claire. And I love this new ASOS photo shoot, and I love the interview excerpts:

On her latest obsession: The Only Way is Essex – “Damn, I love that show…(TOWIE) is just so good. We don’t have anything that rivals it. I don’t even care if it’s real or not, it’s thoroughly entertaining.”

On her decision to join Homeland: “It was a leap of faith for all of us. We only had the faintest sense of where the writers were going to take the story, and I think they were discovering it themselves as they went along, which is one of the reasons television can be so exciting. But it’s always just such a relief when a story that you care about and a character that you’ve worked so terribly hard to create manages to translate.”

On My So-Called Life: “I was 13 when I did the pilot and I was inexperienced. I knew that the show was special though – it was so fresh, even kind of revolutionary. Devon Gummersall (Brian Krakow) and Devon Odessa (Sharon Cherski) are dear friends of mine. If I’m in LA, I still have Thanksgiving with Bess Armstrong who played my mother. We’re all really, very close. Those gigs don’t happen very often.”

On Romeo + Juliet: “That was a lot of fun. If you’re going to be an ingénue, that’s the one to be – the ultimate. I saw Leo (DiCaprio – Romeo) the other day and in some ways, our dynamic is absolutely the same, but then it’s like, ‘Oh, but wait, we’re big fat grown-ups!’”

On her home away from NYC with husband Hugh Dancy: “The country house is beautiful (a couple hours upstate) – there is nobody around except cows, so no judgments. I can look like absolute hell, and not worry about it…I was terrified when we moved in that it would be haunted. It’s not. Well, if it is, it’s haunted by very happy people.”

On fashion: “I’m a sales slut. I’m just very seduced by a sale. In New York buying clothes is fun, because it really is boutiquey. I like Legacy and Opening Ceremony, and I love Prada. I have a lot of J Brand and Citizens of Humanity jeans. It’s funny with jeans now, because if they don’t feel like a pair of sweatpants, I don’t have patience for them anymore! I think I’m becoming increasingly lazy.”

[From ASOS]

I like the “sales slut” stuff. Claire’s personality seems so girly, and you can tell that she really loves the trappings of celebrity, the hair and makeup people, the clothes and costumes, the free stuff. But she’s also a hell of an actress too, so I don’t begrudge her anything. She deserves it! I can’t wait to see what they do with her character in Season 2 of Homeland. SPOILERS: How will she ever be let back into the CIA? Patinkin is on her side, still, but I have my doubts as to what strings he can pull at the agency. How f–king cool was the scene where Patinkin puts all of Claire’s color-coded material on the wall, when he finally understands what she was trying to tell him? God, this show is amazing.

Photos courtesy of ASOS.