When Showtime presented a “Homeland” panel to the Television Critics Association, we got to see the first two episodes of the season.
We didn’t want to spoil the season premiere, so we waited until you were mostly caught up to where we were when we began this questioning. Season three picks up with the aftermath of the terrorist attack at the CIA headquarters. At the end of the season premiere, Saul (Mandy Patinkin) sold out Carrie (Claire Danes) in a senate hearing. Carrie has already gone off her medication, against her father’s wishes. So we started asking Danes what this all means for Carrie as “Homeland” continues.
CraveOnline: Is working with Mandy Patinkin different this year since the content of the scenes and your relationship is so different?
Claire Danes: Well, I really haven’t worked with him that much yet. We’ve been estranged physically as well as emotionally so I miss him. I would like to see him again, never mind act with him. I’ve missed my friends. I miss my acting buddies because Carrie has been in isolation for a good chunk of the season, and it’s only now that she’s starting to team up again with the more familiar characters.
So, yeah, I’ve been feeling a little lonely as Claire, the actor, but yes. I mean, she does feel a certain level of betrayal. But also, Saul and Carrie share an enormous, profound amount of guilt and responsibility for this devastating bomb that has happened, this loss. And so even though they are estranged from each other, they are they are very deeply connected because they really experience that trauma in a way that no one else has.
This is the first season you’ve worked as a mom. How are you juggling the schedule, and your husband’s TV schedule?
I’m figuring it out as we go along. I was so in my cozy mommy bubble, I was very anxious about returning to work. I had all sorts of exaggerated fears, I think the biggest one being, “Oh God, will I ever want to work again?” In fact, I do and it’s been great. And the material is very, very dark. It’s so nice to come home and be jarred out of that state by this buoyant butter ball.
Do you bring the baby to the set?
Yeah, he comes to work. He comes to work. Yeah, Lesli Linka Glatter, our director, will hold him and direct. She’s literally bobbing him and “action!” It’s very cool.
What is the decompression like for you after this season?
Well, I’ll go join Hugh [Dancy] in Toronto and it’ll be my turn to be holding down the domestic fort. We feel so fortunate that we get to work in tandem like this. There’s like a month overlap but basically it’s his turn, my turn.
Do you ignore acting things during that time?
We’re not very actorly actors. We don’t talk about it so much. I mean, we run lines with each other, but yes, of course we’re supportive of each other and if either one of us is having an issue, we’re there to talk through it, but it’s not something we revolve around.
As good as you may be about separating your professional and personal life, is it hard to play a character in this much despair?
Yeah, and she’s in a very dark place. I think she’s having a harder time than we’ve ever seen her have before, which is saying a lot. But it is true, she lost 217 of her peers and if she felt responsible about 9/11, boy, does she feel responsible about this. I think Howard put it very well when he said it would just be emotionally counterfeit to depict these characters now in anything other than a very bleak state. I mean, it’s kind of exacting and it is fatiguing but as I say, I have this beautiful little boy to just go “byew!” and erase it all very quickly.
Do you think it may come to a point where you say you just need a year off from this?
No. I mean, really, I keep thinking no way can they go further. No way. Their imaginations must be tapped out at this point. And they just, I mean, I really am in awe of what they can do, and every season is just that much more bold and brave and involved and surprising, and so it’s so much fun. It feels so, so lucky, so lucky.
Will you spoof Anne Hathaway on “Saturday Night Live?”
Well, I think it’s only fair. No, no, I have no idea. No beef. No beef whatsoever. I’m friendly with Anne. And I was in Toronto at the time with Hugh, who who’s doing “Hannibal.” And I got a series of texts from her saying, you know, “Hi, um, so I’m hosting ‘SNL’ and I really hope we can still be friends.” And then [she] sent me a big bouquet of flowers. And this is all before it aired, and I was like, “Oh, s***. I don’t know if I want to watch this. She’s way too nice about it.”
Then I did get a little bit curious and I tried to look it up on my computer and I literally couldn’t figure it out, because somehow being in Canada was creating some difficulty. And then, so much time passed and I thought l just I enjoyed her flowers and I don’t think I need to look at that. But, no, I mean, it’s all in good fun. And actually, to be honest, I was very flattered, really, genuinely. To be parodied on “SNL” means, oh, boy, we are relevant. We’re in the zeitgeist. We’re cool, cool enough to make fun of.
How dangerous is it going to be for Carrie to be off her meds?
I mean, Carrie is always sitting on her own personal ticking bomb, and it’s just an impossible dilemma because she is not great on the meds and she’s even worse off of them. But there’s a really great sweet spot in the middle of those two states that she’s always trying to land on where she’s exceptionally high performing, and we get to enjoy her process of finding that balance, but no. I mean, yeah, it’s pretty bleak in the beginning. She’s gone off her meds for all sorts of reasons which I think she believes strongly in, but it’s always a little precarious.
