British actor Damian Lewis bid Homeland goodbye to play King Henry VIII in BBC's new and ambitious mini-series, and the actor has found himself relating well to his highly controversial character.
King Henry VIII was robust in his youth but he was never the same again after he fell from his horse back in 1536.
It was said that King Henry lost his balance and fell from his horse during a jousting tournament, and to make matters worse, his heavily-armoured horse fell on top of him. History records said that he was knocked out cold for two hours after the accident.
For his part, Lewis did not fell off a horse but he did suffer from a motorcycle accident. "I've suffered from concussion myself from a motorbike crash," he shared.
The hardworking Lewis went back to work just three weeks later but found himself unable to perform his job normally. Halfway through a soliloquy, he dropped to the floor and had to sit down for the duration of the speech.
"I gave the rest of my speech from there. If I hadn't sat down, I would have keeled over. I probably wasn't ready to go back," he said.
Lewis recalled the horrible ordeal he went through while recovering from the accident, and said that he believes King Henry VIII felt the exact same things he did.
"I spent three months afterwards getting into needless fights and suffering from bouts of depression, unable to watch TV or read because of migraines," the actor said. "I would often not get dressed and just do puzzles in my flat. So I think it's absolutely plausible that it had an effect on Henry's character."
"I think we all have an understanding that Henry was a womanising, syphilitic, bloated, genocidal Elvis character," he added. "But in the period I play him he had a 32-inch waist and was much taller than anyone else. His beautiful pale complexion was often remarked on."
Lewis said that the king's downward spiral only came after the accident. "I found that the grandiose, more paranoid, self-indulgent, self-pitying, cruel Henry emerged in the period after this," he surmised.