Claire's By Home Run

She plays a volatile, highly strung CIA agent on Homeland, which has been renewed for a seventh season. But in reality, Claire Danes tends to take life with a pinch of salt.

- Sandra Parmee

While Claire Danes plays the intense Carrie Mathison on American TV series Homeland, in real life she couldn’t be more different. She throws costume parties and often has craft days with friends as well as her husband, Hugh Dancy, at their home in New York. ‘I feel like I’ve gotten younger as I’ve aged. It’s a young mistake to assume that life is very serious. I get the joke now,’ she told Allure magazine.

Claire grew up in New York. Her parents were art school graduates who put their artistic endeavours on hold to make it in the big city. ‘My mom and dad dragged me to everything – every art opening, every obscure dance performance. I was flooded from an early age with a lot of brilliant stuff.’

It was while watching Madonna on TV at the age of five that she first ‘registered that performing could be a job’. In 1992 she landed the part of 15-year-old Angela Chase in My So-Called Life. Despite being a hit, the show was cancelled after one season. Still, Claire picked up a Golden Globe for her performance, and caught the attention of the film industry. She starred in 1994’s Little Women and shone opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo and Juliet.