Claire Danes Nearly Quit Acting After She Couldn’t Get Work for 2 Years
Actor Claire Danes has managed to build a nice career for herself after starring in highly respected works like Homeland. Danes’ success was especially important seeing as how she seriously considered quitting the business a couple of years prior.
Claire Danes once took a break from acting for college
Danes was already on the rise during the early to mid 90s. She began making a name for herself in small roles in television projects. In 1994, she had the opportunity to lead her own television drama with the series My So-Called Life. Although the show was canceled after one season, the cancellation didn’t stall Danes’ career.
But eventually, the actor star thought it might have been wise to take a break from acting. One of her motivations was to reacquaint herself with others around her age range who she could relate to more. To do this, she attended Yale University in 1998.
”I wanted to try and socialise myself because I was starting to feel a bit strange, a little on the fringe of my generation, my contemporaries. I was a problem,” Danes once said in an interview with Marie Claire (via Contact Music). ”Did it work? Yeah. I learned how to think in an analytical way, how to basically read and write and I wasn’t a freak anymore. And I knew how to hang!”
Claire Danes almost quit acting after she couldn’t get work for 2 years
Her stint in university wasn’t the first time the Romeo + Juliet star contemplated taking a break from acting. There was a point where the actor considered taking a more permanent break away from the spotlight. These circumstances were different, however, as Danes flirted with quitting acting due to a lack of work.
“It was confusing. I got a lot of plaudits, and it didn’t translate into more work. I was really, really struggling during that time,” she once opened up in a Vogue interview. “It was grim. I was very hurt. Two years of not working was brutal. And a point came where I thought, I really like interior design. Someone suggested, ‘Maybe your real success is in your personal life.'”
Eventually, she sought advice from other veterans in the film industry who helped her weather the storm.
“I’ve had conversations with them. Meryl, Susan Sarandon, Jodie Foster,” she said.
The actors would give her a wide range of advice that stayed with Danes.
“‘You have to pick your battles on set. You have to come to work from a place of love. You have to stay hydrated when you have crying scenes,'” Danes remembered being told. “‘You have to go to college. And you have to ask for money because there’s always more money and they won’t give it to you because you’re a girl!'”
Claire Danes had reservations about doing ‘Homeland’
Danes would experience a massive career resurgence playing bi-polar CIA officer Carrie Mathison in Homeland. The show became one of Showtimes’ most successful series, running for on the network for eight seasons. Danes won both a Golden Globe and an Emmy for her work in the prestigious crime drama. But before taking the role, Danes confided that she had certain doubts about working in television.
“I was aware of it being a potentially good environment for me, but I wasn’t chasing anything specifically. And when they came to me with this I had my reservations just because it is such a profound commitment, and she’s tough, this Carrie Mathison lady. I didn’t know if I wanted to be tortured for a decade,” Danes said in a 2011 interview with Vulture.
However, Danes never came across a character like Carrie Mathison before, and couldn’t turn down the opportunity to portray her.
“But as distressed as she is, she’s also really, really fascinating, and I don’t have many opportunities to play people this surprising and this complex,” Danes said.
