Damian Lewis: Boarding school gave me a ‘temper’

Damian Lewis has blamed his "temper" on boarding school.

The 45-year-old actor was educated at Ashdown House School in East Sussex before moving on to study at Eton College with the likes of Tom Hiddleston, Eddie Redmayne and Dominic West, and has said the need for "adjustment" when it came to living away from his parents during term time built up a "latent anger" within him.

He said: "I do have a temper.

"There is a latent anger in a lot of people that went to boarding school at an early age. I was eight. And I loved it over the five years, but I think the adjustments for eight-year-olds are a lot. And I think it informs who you are for a long, long time."

But the ‘Billions’ actor admits finding a "mechanism" to help deal with is anger helped to control his "outbursts of anger".

He added: "But if you learn a mechanism that early to deal with situations that are foreign to you — trying to find your place within a group — you naturally suppress a lot of your own instincts. And I think exercising that amount of control is very clearly related to outbursts of anger later on.’

Now, the ‘Homeland’ actor – who has daughter Manon, 10, and son Gulliver, nine, with his wife Helen McCrory – says he uses football to curb his anger.

Speaking to Evening Standard magazine, Damian said: "I enjoy the total absorption in a white ball and 10 other guys and the focus, and the way it releases everything else from your mind. It’s brilliant, it’s the best occupational therapy I can think of.

"You run around and get fit and it releases any anger or tension that you have. I used to play at 7.30 on Thursday mornings in New York. I’d haul myself out of bed, even if I’d had a night shoot that finished at 2am and go and play. I love it."