Does this feel like the right time to end?
DANES Alex just couldnt stand the weight of it anymore. I think it ended for him. The way this show is structured, it can be reimagined over and over again. Its flexible in that way. Every year it was a reboot.
Would you have done more if more had been offered?
DANES Ive been claimed by it. I had two kids over the course of the show, too. So I really didnt have many hiatuses. I think its important for me as an actor to stretch myself in different ways. So in that sense, its good for it to end, and this is as good a point as any. But I dont think that it needed to end now.
How were the last days on set?
DANES We had a final scene together and I lost it at the end. After that, I didnt have scenes that were all that complex or critical. I was in a mild fugue state, strangely calm, a little dissociated. But when I had my final scene with Mandy, thats when I was able to feel the loss and the pride and gratitude for everything that we have shared. When we wrapped, for two consecutive weeks, I dreamed that we were filming. Im still kind of struggling with this idea of it being truly concluded. But Im cooking again. Im de-Mathisoning by baking chickens and stuff.
PATINKIN I didnt have the balls to not have something to do so immediately after, so I set up a concert tour of which Im halfway through. [Patinkin, a musical theater veteran, sings selections from his recent Diaries albums.] Over the Christmas vacation, I started walking around with my wife going, What am I going to do? I want to be free. But its like, what am I good at? And who am I, and what am I going to be? I have never had an experience like this. I dont have a reference point.
DANES No, me neither. Who does? I mean, Ive never done anything as long. Ive barely been married as long. Im not going to find that again.
PATINKIN Wait a minute, young lady: You dont know what youre going to find. Ive been through a lot of things, and I never imagined that Id have this opportunity. The blessed grace of our existence is we dont know what happens one second from now.
But youll be in each others lives?
DANES Yes, theres not a choice.
PATINKIN Were family.
Read this article:
The Stars of Homeland Get Their Final Debriefing - The New York Times
