Claire Danes looks absolutely amazing on the newest cover of ASOS May 2020 issue. The 32-year-old actress sits down for a chat with the magazine and opens up about her favorite TV show, her return to television in the US drama ‘Homeland’, playing the seminal role of Angela Chase in ‘My So-Called Life’, living and shopping in New York, her friends, and many more.
On ‘The Only Way is Essex’, her fave piece of television, Claire admits that, “I love that show. It’s just so good. We don’t have anything that rivals it. I don’t even care if it’s real or not, it’s thoroughly entertaining.”
Despite the fact that Claire Danes has been famous since she was only 13, the actress remains very realistic and grounded. Speaking about her decision to join ‘Homeland’, Danes says that, “It was a leap of faith for all of us. We only had the faintest sense of where the writers were going to take the story, and I think they were discovering it themselves as they went along, which is one of the reasons television can be so exciting. But it’s always just such a relief when a story that you care about and a character that you’ve worked so terribly hard to create manages to translate.”
On playing the seminal role of Angela Chase in ‘My So-Called Life’, for which she won a Golden Globe, Claire Danes told ASOS that, “I was 13 when I did the pilot. And I was so inexperienced, because you are at that age. I knew that the show was special though – it was so fresh, even kind of revolutionary. I have so much affection for everybody in that show. Boy Devon [Gummersall, Brian Krakow] and girl Devon [Odessa, Sharon Cherski] are dear friends of mine. If I’m in L.A., I still have Thanksgiving with Bess Armstrong who played my mother. We’re all really, very close. Those gigs don’t happen very often.”
As on her teenage years spent in the spotlight, the actress confesses that, “It was lonely in a lot of ways. I was in a very adult world, and didn’t go to a conventional high school, but I was lucky and I worked with responsible people who never exploited me as a kid.” She then continues saying that, “[Acting] was absolutely my choice, and I was the engine behind it. My parents just helped facilitate it and tried to keep me as safe as possible. They were adamant that I had a tutor, and it was always assumed that I would go to college.”
On Baz Luhrmann’s ‘Romeo + Juliet’, Danes recalls that, “That was a lot of fun. If you’re going to be the ingenue, that’s the one to be – the ultimate. I saw Leo [DiCaprio], Romeo to her Juliet] the other day and in some ways, our dynamic is absolutely the same, but then it’s like, ‘Oh, but wait, we’re big fat grown-ups!”
Claire lives in New York with her husband, the British actor Hugh Dancy. They also have a country home, a couple of hours upstate. “I grew up in New York, so it’s home in the most absolute sense for me. I love how diverse it is, and I love the pace. It’s always churning and changing and I’m always hustling to keep up with it. And the country house is beautiful -there is nobody around except cows, so no judgments. I can look like absolute hell, and not worry about it. It’s an old farmhouse, made in the late 1700s, and I was terrified when we moved in that it would be haunted. It’s not. Well, if it is, it’s haunted by very happy people,” the actress told ASOS.
Claire describes her friends as being a ‘mixed bunch – psychologists, writers, lawyers, artists and the odd globally recognised designer.’ “Narciso Rodriguez was my first fashion big brother. He made my wedding dress, which was wonderful. And we’re friends with Valentino, I mean, we are friends with him! I adore him. Christopher Bailey made Hugh’s wedding suit, he’s such a kind man, so unaffected and just very humble. Kind of goofy but crazy talented. And Miuccia Prada I’m friendly with,” Danes says.
In her interview with the magazine, the actress also talks about fashion, sales and shopping in New York. “In New York buying clothes is fun, because it really is boutiquey. I like Legacy and Opening Ceremony, and I love Prada. I have a lot of J Brand and Citizens of Humanity jeans. It’s so funny with jeans now, because if they don’t feel like a pair of sweatpants, I don’t have patience for them any more! I think I’m becoming increasingly lazy,” Claire says.
Read Claire Danes’ full interview in the May 2020 issue of ASOS Magazine.
Photos courtesy of ASOS
