Damian Lewis doesn’t think money is "terribly important".
The 45-year-old actor stars as Bobby ‘Axe’ Axelrod, the manager of a hedge fund, in American television drama ‘Billions’ but says his cash-grabbing character on the show is very different to how he is as a person.
Lewis does use his wealth to ensure his children – 10-year-old Manon and nine-year-old Gulliver, whom he has with his wife Helen McCrory – have a great education, but there’s little else he or Helen spend money on.
Speaking to Australian magazine TV Week, the ‘Homeland’ star said: "We don’t think money is terribly important in our family. I spend money on my children’s school fees, and I just renovated my house but I don’t own a second home or have a yacht."
And despite paying for his children’s education rather than sending them to a free school, the ‘Wolf Hall’ actor recently claimed he would never send them to boarding school because his own experience with that type of education was "very hard".
He said: "I went at (to boarding school) eight and I think that’s very hard. You go through something which, at that age, defines you and your ability to cope. There’s a sudden lack of intimacy with a parent, and your ability to get through that defines you emotionally for the rest of your life."
Lewis – who received his big break in Second World War serial ‘Band of Brothers’ in which he played John D. Winters – previously admitted the fact he’s found fame and success at all is largely down to being "lucky".
The British actor said: "My dad lived in America for five years, and we have relations and even a godfather over there. I’m extremely lucky.
"’Band of Brothers’ kicked it all off. I was a needle in a haystack – they looked at hundreds of men all over the English-speaking world and, for whatever reason, it came down to me."
Damian Lewis not motivated by money
