Claire Danes covers the September issue of British GQ to promote the second season of “Homeland,” and she looks absolutely stunning and skyscraper-esque on the front of the magazine. Claire is, of course, now pregnant with her first child with husband Hugh Dancy, and she talks about how hard it is to spend five months per year away from him while filming the show in North Carolina. She even signed a seven-year-contract for the show, so if it continues to be successful in the ratings, that away time is going to be an ongoing issue and quite a challenge when the baby arrives. I wonder how she and Hugh will juggle their newfound duties, but I suppose they’ll manage. People always do.
Anyway, Claire sounds utterly in love not only with her hot husband but also her “Homeland” character, Carrie Mathison, the bipolar, brilliant CIA agent embodied perfectly by Claire herself. Here are some excerpts from the GQ interview:
On her “Homeland” character, Carrie: “She’s like my kinky superhero alter ego now. Because as disturbed and troubled as she is, she’s always f&%#ing right. Which is so nice because I so rarely am. To be honest I never expected [the show] to get picked up so I wasn’t sure what it was going to be like, but it’s fun. It’s like, ‘Oh, there she is again!’ I like her a lot.”
Why she turned down Titanic: “I had just made a romantic epic with Leonardo — it just seemed redundant to me.”
On being a child actor: “The problem is that I always took myself too seriously. Now I realise I should have lightened up. I was a serious kid to an absurd degree. I was overwhelmed with responsibility, trying to play grown up. I overdid it. [My friend] was a PA on a movie I did when I was about 16 and she was horrified by how old I seemed. She was like, ‘You’re a grandma and you’re 16. You’re f#%*ing weird, stop it.'”
On working away from Hugh: “It sucks. Seven years, it’s a long-ass time. But every year I’m going to have something really compelling to do. I remember [the script for Homeland] came up on the weekend I had to read for the secretary role on J. Edgar and I was like, ‘Do I want to play the secretary to some compelling person — or do I just wanna play the compelling person?'”
[From GQ UK]
To this day, I always think of Claire as Angela Chase from “My So-Called Life,” and it’s refreshing to see a relatively rare former child actor who didn’t descend into drugs and debauchery. Let that be a lesson to all the Lohans out there, right? As talented and down-to-earth as Claire seems, however, I’m glad she didn’t end up playing Rose in Titanic. She’s right that it would have been awkward to play another love interest to Leo immediately after Romeo + Juliet.
Also, check out this leggy preview from the magazine spread. Dayum.
Photos courtesy of GQ
I can’t wait until Homeland airs again.
always wondered about this series.
It’s a fantastic show. You should give it a try. I only get showtime on my cable around the time Homeland comes back on. I am cheap like that 🙂
lol well ya gotta do what ya gotta do right? lol I will check out the pilot this week..online. 😀
It’s a great series and I highly recommend watching it. Not only does it have Claire Danes, but the awesome Damien Lewis and an excellent plot!
She looks absolutely stunning in that second picture.
Anyway, I’m glad she didn’t do Titanic. I’m not Kate Winslet fan, but Rose was her part a million percent.
I actually thought they photoshopped her to look like Anna Paquin in that second pic! Anna Paquin’s gorgeous too though. 🙂
Gorgeous! Love her.
“Homeland” is amazing. I never liked her until I saw it. She rocks on that show.
+1
She looks amazing. I’m only on episode 4 of the first season of homeland. I love it, but I dont really like her character.
I hope that homewrecker karma of hers doesn’t come back to bite her in the ass especially now that she’s pregnant
I agree- that is always what I think of when I see her.
I’ve grown to love her, and forget her past indiscretions . She is an amazing actress and i can’t wait for homeland
Me too. I mean I still remembered it happened. But maybe because she is an actress before a celebrity it is easier for people not to call her out on it. It seemed like a very messy situation and hopefully all the parties have moved on. The show is great and she is a talented actress. You never hear any tabloid rumors about her.
I never thought of her as gorgeous but these pictures look fantastic!
I’m confused. Do they not see each other for the entire 5 months? That’s weird. I’m sure she gets weekends off. They can visit each other. And he isn’t like an in demand actor so I don’t see why he couldn’t fly to NC and sort of live there while she is filming or not take jobs that last/over lap with the 5 months she is there. I said the same thing on the Orlando/Miranda post. People don’t seem to put in the effort to make their relationships work and then wonder why they fail. They aren’t self sustaining.
Not to be cynical but I doubt she’ll still be married in 7 years. Who in Hollywood really stays married now a days? Especially with 5 month caps a child.
I swear she looks more like Clemence Poesy every day.
Well, My so-called Life only lasted a few episodes – and on cable, at that – so not enough to turn her into a LiLo level wash up at 20. But still, turning down Titanic because of some obscure Shakespeare adaptation that I saw alone because no one else would go with me? That’s not a good career move. I actually didn’t realize she’d been offered the part in Titanic, but so few people would have even realized she and Leo had been a in a film together previously that it’s a horrible excuse to throw away what would have made her an a-list actress. Possibly it’s a lie that she turned that role down?