Time's up: thanks everyone.
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SkavArt asks:
Earlier in the year you commented that it was “a nonsense” that only privately educated actors were becoming dominant in acting. Don’t you feel that, due to the lack of funding in all the arts, such as the removal of grants and increase course fees, that it’s becoming less diverse? That there isn’t the healthy mix of students from different backgrounds that there once was?
On a less serious note:
I watched an old episode of A Touch of Frost on television the other evening and was a bit surprised to see that you were in it. You looked about 12! And I also read somewhere that you’re somewhat grumpy before your years and prone to get annoyed at all sorts of things, such as littering. I’ve just deliberately thrown a crisp packet on the floor - what are you gonna do about it?
Guardian contributor You're right, we have to protect against lack of diversity. If theatre, film, TV, dance, opera, ballet are going to remain true artforms, they must be reflective of all society. but that's a different point from saying that only privately educated actors are becoming dominant in acting, because statistically that's not true. A handful of actors from privileged backgrounds have done well, very well, and of course that's high profile news. But whenever I work, wherever I work, as an actor educated at Eton, I'm still always in a minority. What is true and always rewarding about the acting profession is that everyone has a similar story about them being in a minority. From whatever background. And that coming into the acting profession is when we all finally find likeminded people. But it goes without saying, I hope, that theatre and the arts generally in my view are a fundamental and important part of any child's education, and to see any more cuts would be sad.
TimmyP99 asks:
As a theatre goer, I absolutely hate the noise made by sweet packets. Does it annoy you as an actor, or are you able to completely block out distractions?
Guardian contributor It annoys me intensely. We haven't asked for them to be banned as they have in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? There were a lot of phones going off the other night, and someone took their vey annoying ringtone out of their bag, and it got much louder briefly, and for some reason this person just took it out and let it ring loudly. I was so dumbfounded by that, that I did stop performing briefly, and ask if they were going to get it. We went straight back in - Sophie was with me on stage, she was incredibly focused, and it actually was kind of electric. We carried right on and the audience didn't miss a beat with us. And were fully engaged immediately.
Sterling Burke asks:
You mentioned something about roles being nourishing? What exactly does that mean?
Guardian contributor When you play a role for a long time, you hope that the themes, the issues, the politics, the humour of the story continue to feed you. Great pieces of writing are never entirely knowable, and that's what you hope for on stage, you continue to discover the play. And in that way, it sustains you over a longer period of time. All your roles stay with you in some form or other.
LawrenceWindrush asks:
Really impressed by Keane. What research did you do for this role?
Guardian contributor I read a lot of literature about schizophrenia, I read a lot about homelessness, and went to a home up in New York and met people there who were suffering from mental illness and/or had been homeless. I spent a lot of time in Port Authority bus terminal, hanging out with homeless people - one woman believed she was Tina Turner and would tell me every morning about her gig the previous night with Ike at an imaginary club, and how she slept on the subway every night in the parked trains in the tunnels. She'd get up, use the public showers, and take up her position on the sidewalk directly outside the terminal every morning.
LinaGr asks:
For you, what is the biggest difference between film and stage acting?
Guardian contributor Volume. In the olden days, when lighting was less sophisticated, as was makeup, one needed to make adjustments to one's performance physically, so that all 900 people could see it. It's less necessary these days. It's also tempting to be more presentational when you have 900 people sat in front of you, and ignore the fourth wall of your set, if you're inside. But I have found that the work in front of the camera I've done for film and TV has made me more specific and more detailed on stage. But I've always enjoyed the stage, for its greater physicality, athleticism. It feels more like sport than film or TV.
'London's ability to change is a good thing'
lynxmanuk asks:
I live in Camden Town and I see you around fairly often, I’ve also seen you embrace and push community efforts which is in my opinion amazing. As a Londoner what do you think about the big changes that the city is facing like pollution, gentrification etc?
Guardian contributor I'm quite interested in the diesel ban in Paris. I wonder if we could follow suit here. The gentrification of world cities is not unique - it's happening in New York too. I'm in two minds about change - the romantic, the nostalgic me, longs for things not to be lost. But one of the great things about London is its ability to change, morph, and become different cities for different eras, in a way that some European cities don't. And interestingly, they can feel quite provincial when you visit them as a result. Albeit beautiful. But I think London's ability to be a constantly changing, breathing organism is a good thing. We have to protect its soul, that's true.
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OzMogwai asks:
Is Paul Giamatti as intimidating in real life as he is on screen?
Guardian contributor 
catchytitled asks:
Greetings Damian, I know you have played in big charity football and golf events. Which would you prefer to have; a World Cup winners medal or a Green Jacket? Having picked one would you then trade it for your Golden Globe?
Guardian contributor That sounded a little bit like one of my children's maths problems...
Georgie1706 asks:
Have you ever thought about either holidaying or working in Australia (or both!) to do a movie or a stint in the theatre? You have a lot of fans down under!
Guardian contributor I've never been to Australia, but everyone loves it! I'd need quite a lot of suncream. And aren't there more poisonous animals in Australia than any other country in the world? But I'm open to persuasion.
BaharLeventoglu asks:
Is there a particular reason why you chose The Goat for your return to the West End stage?
Guardian contributor I think The Goat is a modern American classic. I think it's a play about love and tolerance, and I think an exploration of different expressions of love, different manifestations of love, and what we're prepared to tolerate and accept seemed apt for now. We're surrounded by examples of rejection at the moment, on the macro, and on the micro level. A retrenching; a resurgence of nationalism. I think there's a degree on unease, of uncertainty around - I think that always makes people feel anxious. I think building bridges with Europe is preferable to taking them down, but we'll have to see what it means in actual terms over the next couple of years. I resent the amount of political time, space and money it's going to take up - I think that's unnecessary. In terms of what's going on in America, whilst it can be frustrating when we feel politicans don't say anything of consequence, or seem to obfuscate always,s we've seen how damaging and dangerous it can be when someone uses language irresponsibly. And we've seen it really does matter what you say. Words have power; they are what give meaning to our experience. It's how we understand, shape and recount our experiences, collectively. Which is another reason this play is so good to do right now, because in it, words as used as weapons. Language is of paramount importance in the play. There's a pedantry in the play about language and how it should be used. It should be used with precision. The Goat, as a metaphor, represents other. For Albee it was his own homosexuality as a young man in the 1950s, but it can be taken to mean anything that we don't understand or are ignorant of.
It's also a brilliant theatrical experience, both to perform and to watch - it's laceratingly funny, sad, and totally absurd at times.
Stoorie19 asks:
Do you think the current Liverpool team is good enough to win the league?
Guardian contributor No. We need a world-class centre half, and a holding midfielder, and left-back, although I love James Milner but he's not playing in his natural position. I love Klopp too.
Meeting the real heroes of Band of Brothers
BigDukeSix asks:
Band of Brothers is your best work, I feel. It is a fantastic series that will stand the test of time, and even more astonishing in that it is all true. Did you become close to Dick Winters as a consequence?
Guardian contributor Thank you. At the time it was the most expensive TV show ever made, and it was a labour of love by Tom Hanks and HBO. Interesting bit of trivia: after they had made Saving Private Ryan, Spielberg and Hanks decided they wanted to make a TV series, and Steven Spielberg had read another book he said he wanted to turn into a TV show, but Tom said to him, you've got the wrong book, read Band of Brothers. And in Band ofBrothers there is a four line reference to a private Ryan, who is extracted from the second world war, and so Band of Brothers was made instead.
Dick was quite a difficult person to get close to. He was suspicious of Hollywood, rightly so, that they would in some way bastardise the story. And grew in confidence when he realised how sincerely Tom and HBO were approaching it. I went and stayed with him on his farm in Pennsylvania, where he lived in great comfort because he used his agricultural science degree which he had already got before D-Day - he was 26 when he jumped, a lot of the other boys were only 19. And he came back to America after the war and developed a recipe for chicken feed which made him a lot of money. He was not given to long emotional anecdotes about his experience of the war, he was unlikely to sit in a bar with you til 3 in the morning drinking whisky, unlike Wild Bill Guarnere. His recollections of the war were more tactical, more dry. Which is why in my view, the single most moving moment of the entire series is when you see Dick recounting a letter than one of his soldiers gets from a grandson who asks: grandpa, were you a hero in the war, and the grandfather replies no, but I served in a company of heroes. And Dick's lip quivers and his voice breaks, and it's the closest I've ever seen him to showing real emotion.
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Rita Quinn asks:
Which has been your favourite character to play so far? And what was [President] Obama’s reaction to the signed note you left him on the Homeland box set?
Guardian contributor I don't have a favourite character. All reveal themselves in interesting ways
I put on the Homeland boxset, "From one Muslim to another". And the president of the United States was tickled by my message, but I did lose confidence a couple of weeks later and contacted his press secretary at the time to check he had got the joke. And I received word that he had. And I obviously haven't upset him too much, because he's now a huge Billions fan.
DCMLBusheyHall asks:
What’s your next project other than a well deserved holiday with your family? I’m sure your agent has a host of ideas... Thanks for taking the time to do this.
Guardian contributor Well, I hope to play Henry VIII one more time, because I believe Hillary Mantel is writing the third instalment of Wolf Hall, and Thomas Cromwell's still got four years left to live. But when, I don't know. There will be a third series of Billions later this year.
Westbrook283 asks:
We saw you in The Goat on Thursday afternoon (the one with the annoying interruption from an iPhone, which you handled brilliantly). It seemed a pretty gruelling part to play – how does it rate against other roles you’ve tackled?
Guardian contributor The role is tiring to play because in different ways Martin is a tragic centre of a comic situation. And so I have to remain absolutely true to the heartbreak of hurting my wife, the grief of losing my lover, and the personal dislocation and the exhaustion of having a divided self, for two hours on stage. Having said that, it's one of the most fun and energising roles I've ever played, if that's not a contradiction.
It's not as tiring as Hamlet.
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Bicuser asks:
Saw you on the tube the other day. We both alighted at Leicester Square and for a few seconds I was tempted to say something, to complement you on your body of work. But decided against it. Are you often recognised in an irritating way by complete strangers who ask to take selfies, etc? Or do you manage to remain relatively anonymous?
Guardian contributor I get asked to stop a lot and have a photo, and sometimes it's impossible to stop - usually because I'm running slightly late, and I have to get somewhere on time. And so when I stop I'm afraid really depends on my mood and my circumstances. I like to stop for people if I can. If you had stopped me and said something sincere and heartfelt that would have been a very pleasant chat to have had, so I'm sorry you didn't.
essexgirl47 asks:
I’m female, 70, overweight and unhinged. Do I stand a chance with you? xxxxxxxx
Guardian contributor Updated
Adam Yates asks:
I absolutely love the scenes in Billlions with you and David Costabile (Wags). It looks less like acting and more like two good friends having fun. Is that the case or are you the best actor on the planet?
Guardian contributor
Getting into a role
Viksy Stewart asks:
The first time I got to see you act was in The Forsyte Saga. Your character Soames had so much depth; I hated him, but I also felt his desperation, anger, immense sadness and longing. His idiosyncrasies were just as important for me as the script.
How did you get so much depth into this character and do you spend time developing idiosyncrasies for roles you play??
Guardian contributor I think the important thing for any actor in any role you play is to elicit some empathy from the audience, not sympathy, but empathy - an understanding of why the character behaves the way he does, however malevolent he is. What drives the malevolence, the desperation, why he feels so compromised. And why would he feel so compromised. So getting an audience to understand that, I think puts them in an interesting moral position, which is what interests me as an actor. Every good script has an argument in it, and the characters represent different sides of the argument. So that's what I try to do - and that's very different from wanting to be liked. I think if you want to be liked as an actor, you'll never be interesting.
In terms of idiosyncrasies, there's a funny story behind the rigidity and stiffness to Soames. On the first day of filming in Manchester, my appendix ruptured and I was admitted to the Manchester General Hospital, where I remained for over a week and I couldn't come back to work for two weeks. When I did return to work, I found they'd shot some wide shots, and used a background artist dressed up in a tailcoat and top hat to walk up to Irene's mother's front door, and initially I was incensed that they would have done that. And then I grew so fascinated with this background artist's walk that I stole it for Soames, and so some of the idiosyncratic stiffness in Soames, and his inability to express himself, comes from that extra. So thank you!
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HolyMackerel asks:
When you put on an accent for extended periods of time, like when playing Axe, does it affect your native accent at all?
Guardian contributor Yes, often when I'm in America I use my American accent all weekend when I don't need to - I go to the grocery store and ask for eggplant and zucchini. I can go a whole day like that. It confuses people when I switch mid-conversation, which I've done.
We're off
Nomius asks:
Will we ever see you perform with your equally talented wife? Perhaps Much Ado about Nothing? You were a fab Benedick!
Guardian contributor Helen and I always talk about doing something together, but we have two young children so bedtime is still important. I'm sure we'll work something out soon, I hope.
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Post your questions for Damian Lewis
Damian Lewis is best known for three titanic roles on television: Major Richard Winters in Steven Spielberg’s Band of Brothers, an imperious but paranoid Henry VIII in Wolf Hall and the radicalised PoW Nicholas Brody in Homeland, for which he won a Golden Globe and Emmy in 2012. He’s currently starring in the US drama Billions, opposite Paul Giamatti.
On film there are brilliant curios such as Keane and Our Kind of Traitor, and his stage career is also notable. Lewis cut his teeth with the Royal Shakespeare Company, playing opposite Keira Knightley in a production of The Misanthrope, and he is currently tackling Edward Albee’s The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? alongside Sophie Okonedo. The Guardian’s Michael Billington gave the production five stars, saying Lewis “pushes his capacity for guilt-ridden secrecy to the limit”.
Lewis joins us to answer your questions in a live webchat from 2pm on Wednesday 19 April. Post them in the comments below, and he’ll take on as many as possible.
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Au revoir, thanks for reading. Thanks for being online, and I hope this answers some of your questions. Toodle pip - and come as see The Goat!