Claire Danes marks a dangerous path in Showtime’s ‘Homeland’
Carrie Mathison’s career collapsed in last week’s episode of “Homeland.”
Claire Danes, who stars as the troubled CIA agent, says viewers can expect her life to get worse in tonight’s 90-minute season finale (beginning at 10).
“Carrie is pretty crumpled by the end,” Danes told the Herald in a telephone interview from her New York home. “She has a hard go of it, but she’s going to come back with bravado. I know it. She has to. She couldn’t really get any lower.”
As much as the Emmy winner (“Temple Grandin”) loves being on “Homeland,” she was ready for a break after she finished filming the first season.
“It’s been hugely challenging and incredibly thrilling. I was pretty pooped by the end of the run,” she said. “Life is a lot easier when you’re not Carrie Mathison — when you’re not saving the world and failing to do so, basically.”
Carrie began the season convinced that returning prisoner of war Nicholas Brody (Damian Lewis) was a traitor planning a terrorist attack. Over the course of the season, Carrie slept with Brody, and in the penultimate episode last week, she was fired from her job. Danes says the show has surprised her.
“I had a sense of the general trajectory when we first started talking about doing the show, but it was fairly broad and vague. I’m surprised by how dense they’ve managed to make it — how many sudden turns they’ve made without it feeling fussy or gimmicky.”
The New York native rose to fame when she starred in the short-lived but critically beloved 1994 drama “My So-Called Life.” “Homeland” is her second TV series.
“A TV series was something I was kind of curious about returning to. ‘My So-Called Life’ was such a positive experience for me, and the relationships I created during the show are still very alive,” she said. “I also fell in love with (the HBO drama) ‘The Wire.’ And just to think that I could be a part of something that might capture people’s imagination in the way that ‘The Wire’ captured my imagination was very exciting.”
Fans are rabidly speculating about who is the mole within the CIA. Danes says she doesn’t know. But, unlike many viewers, she doesn’t think it’s Carrie’s boss and mentor Saul (Mandy Patinkin).
“So many people are suspicious of Saul, and I think that’s very amusing,” she said. “Because I don’t see that, and that’s not how we’ve been playing it. But you know, everybody is entitled to their own conspiracy theories.”
Tonight’s finale ends on a cliffhanger.
“It’s also not totally unresolved. The questions that were asked are answered, and then we’re given another set of questions,” she said.
The 32-year-old actress is looking forward to returning to the set in May to begin filming season two.
“This is completely new for me,” she said. “I’ve never gone into another season. That’s very strange. I feel like Carrie’s in the freezer. She’s on ice. She’ll be revived. But I know she’s there right next to the vodka.”
Claire Danes marks a dangerous path in Showtime’s ‘Homeland’
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