10.11.2005

Daniel Craig for Bond? Bollocks! My pick: Damian Lewis

The world is abuzz with talk about who will be the next Bond. From what everyone is hearing, Daniel Craig, he of Sylvia, Road to Perdition, Layer Cake, and that movie Wherein He Is Beloved By Rhys Ifans, If The Trailers Are Any Indicator fame, is the frontrunner. Word is that Clive Owen, everybody's favorite, has declined the role. Another candidate is some suave and Slav doctor on ER, Goran something or other.

But if you ask me, and no one is but myself, which means, am I asking myself rhetorically, because of the previous formulation it would seem so, and my publicist cannot deny or confirm, but I would pick the following Brit: Damian Lewis.

Damian Lewis laid his claim to fame as Major Richard Winters in Band of Brothers, an HBO miniseries about a World War II paratroop company produced by Spielberg and Hanks, atoning for the crappy parts of Saving Private Ryan (that is, all the parts when Ed Burns is talking). The real Richard Winters is alive and well, and is every bit the hero that he is made out to be. (Does it mean that I have a man-crush when I wish the real deal was my grandpa? Again, my publicist withholds comment.) It was easy, therefore, to blur reality and so-called fiction and develop something of a man-crush on the man playing Dick Winters. That is, Damian Lewis.

Damian Lewis has the added advantage/disadvantage, depending on how look at it, or him, of bearing a distinct resemblance to Steve McQueen. After Band of Brothers, he starred in a period miniseries in which he played a peevish, snippy, upper crust Brit (very un-Richard Winters/Steve McQueen-ish); then he starred in the horrible Stephen King adaptation Dreamcatcher, in which his acting talents were abused by having him possessed by an alien that spoke with a British accent. How jolly clever!

Since then Lewis has layed low, playing ancillary roles like J. Lo's abusive boyfriend (I mean, who could pass up that role?) along with Robert Redford in "An Unfinished Life" --or, "A River Runs Through It, But This Time With Daughters In Law".

Lewis is now starring in "Keane", an independent drama about a father traumatized by the loss of his daughter, likely by kidnapping. It has received very positive reviews and proves his acting mettle. While Craig is showing off in flashy fluff like Layer Cake, Lewis is putting in his time in the acting trenches. I say reward him for his work.

Damian Lewis, I present to you your shaken martini! And a license to kill to chase it down.

Up next: Why Layer Cake Stinks.

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