Why Nicholas Brody From Homeland Looked So Familiar

The epic World War II series from HBO, Tom Hanks, and Steven Spielberg, Band of Brothers was universally loved and introduced America to Damian Lewis. Playing Major Dick Winters, Lewis was the clear lead and the force holding the soldiers and the series itself. On the Ross Owen Show, Lewis described the unusual audition process. Instead of reading for any one particular part as he'd usually do on a first audition, Band of Brothers casting just brought in tons of guys, had them all read anything from the script, then slowly started to put the brigade together. Lewis likened it to assembling a soccer team rather than a TV cast. Though this project was on a much bigger scale than anything Lewis had done, he nailed it immediately. In the interview, Lewis said that co-producer Tony To told him years later that, "On your very first reading, I knew you were the guy."

But Lewis didn't realize how important his character would be. He told Ross Owens that he went from a BBC series on a Friday to boot camp on Monday. Right away, he realized the actors weren't there to play around. People didn't want to break character and the work was much more intense than he imagined, but he dove in. "We oddly became these guys. If there had been a psychologist present ... I tell you, they'd have had us on their couch for the next two years trying to shake it out of us. It was very, very, very profound and extraordinarily bonding."