Great Danes CLAIRE CALLS IT QUITS

The Homeland star farewells an iconic role - and hopes for another

It’s 12.10pm in New York City and Claire Danes is walking us through her morning. “I woke at 7am,” she says, sitting in the white-and-chrome kitchen of her West Village townhouse, not far from the SoHo apartment where she was born and raised, and eating her lunch – a green salad, straight from its blue plastic mixing bowl.

“I took the dog out, got our 18-month-old son Rowan up. Hugh [Dancy, the British actor and her husband of 10 years] got our son Cyrus, who’s seven, up and we all ate eggs,” she tells, looking every inch the West Village school mum, in a cashmere jumper and blue jeans.

“Then Hugh went to work on The Good Fight and Rowan and I walked Cyrus to school,” she continues. “I came back and baked bread – my dad has taught me a foolproof recipe – and then I went for my run and listened to podcasts: The [New York Times’] Daily, Fresh Air and Robert Downey Jr on The Joe Rogan Experience. It’s a good day.”

A good day it may be, but not a typical one for Claire. For the past 10 years of her life, excluding a few months’ maternity leave, her days have revolved around the TV character of Carrie Mathison, Homeland’s CIA agent with bipolar disorder, battling terrorists and her own demons simultaneously. It’s been a near-constant mix of filming, training, promoting and researching. And, as both its star and executive producer, there has been the mad rush to complete the final-ever season, which is now screening on SoHo2.

“I was really daunted when the prospect of doing the show first came up,” she admits. “I thought I would have to carry so much misery, how could that not bleed into my own life? Did I want to forfeit my happiness?