by Hannah Gilchrist | November 1, 2013 | Red Magazine
It might be mid-August when we meet Helen McCrory to shoot Red’s December issue, but her hilarious cackle tells you she is looking forward to the festive break. Within minutes, she has the whole team laughing hysterically about her recent purchase of two miniature hamsters and her search for the perfect Emmy dress (her husband Damian Lewis was nominated for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for his role as Nicholas Brody in Homeland).
Fast forward three hours and it’’s starting to feel festive. Talk has turned to winding down for the Christmas break, but for one of the UK’’s leading actresses, she’ll be cutting it to the wire.
‘I was a teenager in Paris and I was proposed to there. It’s special to me’
Laura Holt |
Helen McCrory is an actress. She is currently appearing in BBC2’s crime drama, Peaky Blinders, which concludes this Thursday at 9pm
First holiday memory?
Buying a postcard in the Seychelles of a flamenco dancer. The dress was sewn with cotton: she had black hair and a yellow dress, bright red beads and a castanet. I thought it was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. It’s had a huge influence on my wardrobe ever since. My father was a diplomat so we lived in Africa – in Cameroon and Tanzania – and also in Norway and Paris.
Favourite place in the British Isles?
Wales. We go to Damian’s family [McCrory is married to the actor, Damian Lewis]. They have a place in the Brecon Beacons. My grandfather, who is also Welsh, used to call it “God’s country”. I might not be religious, but I do agree.
Ideal travelling companion?
My husband, Damian. I think that might be quite a few people’s answer, but I just happen to be married to him. We travel a lot and he’s ideal because he’s very interested in where we go and in meeting people. He always reserves judgement. I think that’s very important.
Beach bum, culture vulture or adrenalin junkie?
We just got back from the north of Ibiza. I loved discovering all those little coves, the little beaches and eating really good sardines on plastic tables in huts beside the beach. We walked around the Old Town and sailed on a yacht. I was completely charmed. Continue reading My Life in Travel: Helen McCrory
Helen McCrory prefers Chekhov to chick lit and enjoys a stormy marriage to Damian Lewis
by Giles Hattersley | September 1, 2013 | The Sunday Times
You hear Helen McCrory before you see her, which I imagine is often the case, as she is very loud. Hidden behind the door of a bedroom in Claridge’s, she is peeling off a final layer of clothing for Style’s photographer. “Well, it is the end of the day, darling,” comes the boom. “Sod it.” Clever, confident and a little bit camp, McCrory, 45, is considered by many to be the finest actress of her generation — but today she is simply in the mood to hold court and show some skin. Won’t Damian Lewis, her superstar husband, mind her getting her kit off, asks a member of the crew? “No, no, no,” she says. “Damian is going, ‘F****** yes!’ ”
No doubt. McCrory’s considerable sex appeal continues to gurgle away as we head to the bar. She is only 5ft 4in and dressed like a weird music-hall gangster in a billowing dress, tuxedo jacket and trilby. Yet she is captivating, her coal-black gaze shifting from playful to stern with her mood, as a pair of insane cheekbones flex like children’s fists under her eyes. “I never wanted to be the most popular girl at school,” she announces stagily at one point, and I wonder if this sort of confidence can rub people up the wrong way. Perhaps. I suspect it is also required to be the best at what you do.
by Gingersnap4Helen | helen-mccrory.com | May 29, 2013
McCrory and Lewis at the Hay Festival 2013 source: telegraph.co.uk
The McCrory-Lewis household has long been advocates of the Josephine Hart Poetry Hour. Here Helen and Damian attend Hay Festival in 2013, both in celebration of Josephine Hart and the revival of poetry reading tradition she established at the Festival. If you want to hear them read at Hay Festival, an audience member recorded the Hay Festival reading and posted it here. Helen and Damian read a programme of Byron, Keats and Shelley.
