Damian Lewis: My wife worries our kids will develop American accents
Damian Lewis’ wife is worried their children will develop American accents.
The English-born actor – who shares 10-year-old Manon and nine-year-old Gulliver with his wife Helen McCrory – adopted the accent for his roles in hit American dramas ‘Homeland’ and ‘Billions’, and admits his wife now "has a horror" that he will transfer the intonation onto their children.
Damian said: "I don’t do it [the accent] in front of them. They once spent a school term in the US and they started copying the accent in this comical, exaggerated way, elongating their vowels. I put a stop to that. My wife has a horror that the children will start talking American if we spend too much time out there."
And whilst Damien, 46, likes to keep up his accent whilst he’s away from the cameras in order to make sure it’s up to scratch, he admits his friends back home often tease him for it.
He added to Mr Porter magazine: "I once did a US TV interview in my American accent and somehow it was seen by quite a few of my friends back in England.
"There were several irate text messages. ‘You are British! Stop talking like an American!’ It has become second nature to me now and I am happy to do it. That said, if I am with Brits I come out of it pretty quickly."
Meanwhile, Damian recently admitted that he isn’t motivated by money, and aside from paying for his children’s education, there is little else he finds "terribly important" to splash out on.
He 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."
