'Homeland' Star Claire Danes Says the Role 'Was Impossible to Ignore' (Video)

The actress makes her television series return Sunday on Showtime.

12:34 PM PDT 10/2/2011 by Jethro Nededog

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Ronen Akerman/Showtime

Claire Danes hasn’t done series television in about 17 years since her breakout role in the teen drama, My So Called Life. Her return last year in the title role on HBO’s biopic, Temple Grandin, gave the actress a critically acclaimed welcome back to TV and an Emmy win. She makes her series return on Sunday with Homeland, which premieres at 10 p.m. on Showtime.

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“I have not read a character this compelling in a movie script in quite some time,” Danes tells reporters at TCA about returning to TV after a long film career. “And I just gravitate to the most interesting work, and, you know, this was impossible to ignore.”

Danes plays CIA agent Carrie Mathison, one of the agency’s best experts on Middle Eastern terrorism. Her unorthodox methods and compulsive need to get at the truth has landed her in hot water already. But when she receives information that leads her to believe a newly returned POW (played by Damian Lewis) is working with Al Qaeda, she’s willing to risk her career to stop a terrorist act on American soil.

“She is incredibly bright, at times dangerously bright,” she says of her character. “And formidable and focused, even compulsive, even myopic. But she's also very, very sensitive and vulnerable. And that juxtaposition is interesting.”

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Carrie also has a secret that further endangers her job at the agency if it were to come out. She suffers from a form of bipolar disorder that would greatly compromise her credibility.

“She's on the outside, and it provides her this incredible perspective and incredible vantage point,” Danes explains. “But it also causes her suffering, and, you know, she needs to resolve that. And I think that's really interesting.”

You can watch the premiere Sunday at 10 p.m. on Showtime or watch it online below.