Claire Danes is nothing like her on-screen character (Picture: Damon Baker/Glamour)

Actress Claire Danes may play a top counter-terrorist operative in Homeland but says she’d actually make an ‘abysmal’ CIA officer.

The Hollywood star told how her real-life role as a mother is a world away from the set of the hit US drama where she plays bipolar Carrie Mathison.

‘The truth is, Carrie is so dissimilar to me on basically every level,’ Danes said.

‘I would be an abysmal CIA officer. I’m not even a political beast. I make imaginative leaps all the time. I’m very good at pretending, I guess.’


The 35-year-old, who is married to British actor Hugh Dancy, 39, also explained that her approach to raising their son, Cyrus, differs wildly from that of reluctant new mum Mathison.

Carrie is dissimilar to Claire ‘on every level’ (Picture: Showtime)



‘The baby is incredibly confronting for her, so her solution is to bail,’ she told Glamour magazine. ‘She’s making morally suspect choices. But where would be the fun in seeing her having a reasonable and pleasant time?’

The star, who says she misses acting with former co-star Damian Lewis, confesses that her 23-month-old son is the new leading man in her life.

‘I love it, I love him and I’m endlessly amazed by the depths to which I do, at how involuntary and physical and profound it is,’ she said. ‘Even when he’s sleeping there’s this sense of responsibility.

Once you make that choice, you can never un-make it and I don’t think there’s any other situation where that’s the case.’

Read the full interview in the December issue of Glamour magazine out on Monday.

The interview is in the December issue of Glamour on sale from Monday 3rd November