Whenever I have been close to famous actors, royalty or rock stars in the past, I have not been one to ask for a photograph, but last July that changed when I was on the same plane with a very famous actor from London to Athens.
Having said that, I had not recognized the tall Englishman standing at the front of the plane while still on the ground at London Heathrow who was quizzing the crew about why the plane was delayed and quite how long the delay might be. Having concluded that the crew did not know anything at all about the likely delay and that he was wasting his time, I zoned out.
When we landed at Athens and having passed through Immigration swiftly, we found ourselves standing next to each other beside the Luggage Belt awaiting the arrival of our luggage. And that was when it suddenly became clear that the Englishman was Damian Lewis, actor, musician and producer. Suddenly he was instantly recognizable as Henry Vlll in Wolf Hall, Richard Winters from Band of Brothers, Nicholas Brody in Homeland and last but not least Bobby Axelrod in Billions.
To my surprise I found myself introducing myself to him and talking about his role in Billions. It should be said that he was polite but hardly gracious; but being generous to him maybe the delayed flight (all of 30 minutes) was pre-occupying him. When it came to the question of whether he would pose for a photo with me, as can be seen below, Damian Lewis was a trooper albeit a somewhat reluctant one.
Would I ask another sleb for a photo? On balance yes. After all, they can only say no, and hopefully they might just be a bit less like Damien Lewis channeling his alter ego Bobby Axelrod.
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