If you couldn’t tell by my post on the Season 2 finale of Homeland, I’m obsessed, and I’m still a fan and a true believer of the show, even if I though Season 2 had some kind of crazy plot points at various times. I think the writers did an okay job overall, and I’m going to wait until Season 3 to see how various cliffhangers/theories pan out to make an overall judgment on this season. One thing that I can’t ignore is that the “Carrie” character (played by Claire Danes) came into her own this season. Carrie spent the first season slowly going mad, her genius twisting with her insanity until only Saul believed her, and even then… he had his doubts. Season 2 saw Carrie slowly reclaiming her power and authority, and it was a joy to watch (even though I think she’s going to get majorly burned next season). But what if Season 3 is Claire Danes’ last season? NO.
Big shocker for ‘Homeland’ fans – Claire Danes is secretly planning to leave the show after next season to be a full-time mom! Even though series execs doubled her salary, Claire wants to stay home with her first child, Cyrus Michael Christopher Dancy, who was born Dec. 17, sources say.
“Claire has finally discovered the one thing she loves more than acting – being a mom!” an insider close to ‘Homeland’ told The Enquirer. “Before Cyrus was born, Claire would never have thought about giving up her role on ‘Homeland’ because she thought she’s be able to juggle her job with being a mom. But now she doesn’t want to leave her son.”
“Claire and Hugh have agreed that he’ll continue working on ‘Hannibal’ [Dancy’s new NBS show], as well as other acting jobs, if she decided to follow through with her plans to leave ‘Homeland’.”
After executives learned Claire might walk, they doubled her salary to $220,000 an episode as an inducement to stay for the upcoming season.
Despite the pay raise, “Claire is having regrets about signing on for another season… it’s very likely the execs will eventually offer Claire another huge pay raise if she’ll agree to stay for Season 4, but she’s still leaning towards leaving. Now that she’s a mom, she’s come to realize that the time with her son is invaluable. Besides that, she’s one of the hottest tickets in Hollywood these days. She knows that she can go back to acting any time she wants.”
[From The Enquirer, print edition]
Eh. It could just be random gossip, or it could be a “hint” dropped to the tabloids so that Claire can negotiate an even bigger salary. I still remember reading an interview with Claire just before she started Season 1, and she sounded so excited about the project, and she knew what a risk she was taking, signing on for a less-than-prestigious Showtime series. And her gamble paid off, with tons of awards, nominations and critical acclaim, and she and Damian Lewis are considered two of the best actors on television today. So why would she give that up?
I also dislike when actresses complain about spending time with their kids, like they’re working some grueling 9-to-6 job and they only see their babies for a few hours at night or something. Claire will be able to have Cyrus on set with her, and she’ll get to be a mom while she films. And, by the way, this is a Showtime drama series, meaning that there are only, like, 13 episodes a year! That’s about four or five months of filming… all while Claire has her baby on set with her.
Now, that being said, if the writers found a clever way to kill off the Carrie character at the end of Season 3… well, I would be intrigued.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Nnnooooooo! Please don’t leave!! Gosh I love this show! Can we just have a Homeland post every day? I’m going insane waiting for the next season. I just can’t decide if Brody knew what was going down. I keep flip flopping!
I’d be really interested to know how they’d kill Carrie off. Would it be a bit of an easy way out if she committed suicide because of getting burned by Brody? (If that theory is correct).
I don’t see her going out in a huge ball of flames, though. I think it would be more effective if it was very muted and personal. Ooh. What if Brody did it, face to face, a la Walden?
Hmm, I think I’m getting a bit ahead of myself 🙂
Agree. This sounds like a negotiating tactic. Now, I know that women can fail to anticipate just how much they’ll want to be with their baby, and only realise this after the birth, but as you say, it’s not as though Claire will be working 9 to 5 in an office or factory. She’ll be able to have her baby with her on set at all times, and what celebs refer to as a ‘gruelling schedule’ seems like bliss to most ordinary folks.
I’m not buying it. This role is too good, and like others have said, it’s not 365 days a year and she can have her baby with her at all times.
This is either pointless gossip or her team trying to get Showtime to cough up more dough.
Is it me or is Goop the Dorian Grey Portrait of Claire Danes? Think about it…
I can get down with that. She is amazing on the show but Carrie is not the best decision maker and Claire Danes has an ugly crying face so if they killed her off it would probably be an awesome plot twist and hopefully they will replace her with someone who doesn’t look like the velociraptor from ahead six Park when she cries or gets emotional.
Sounds good to me. It’s more about Brady and her constant crying is annoying and unrealistic for top CIA agent.
I’m a late comer to Homeland, Season One was a Christmas present and I’m only a few episodes in. I love Claire though so I am really looking forward to falling in love (obsession) with this show.
A series like HL has a story arc that is hard to sustain over many seasons otherwise it turns into a ridiculous mess like 24 with the writers trying to top the last season with even crazier plot twists and devices. We saw some of this in season 2. The character of Brody is already ptty much played out and I think/pray/believe the twisted, mysterious and volatile Peter Quinn (Rupert Friend) will slowly replace him as the male lead. The Carrie character still has a lot of development potential left but eventually it will verge on repetition and they will need to bring series to a close if they are smart.
I found the crazy other worldly beauty of Rupert to be something of a distraction however. As I observed in earlier post, Could not stop wondering how he and Keira Knightly could have had passionate sex without ripping each other to shreds with their cheekbones.
Yes, Claire & Goop look alike.
Actually typically a day of filming is 12 hours (exhausting) where you do only get to see anyone you live with for a couple or a few hours at night before its time to get some sleep. Also having a baby especially a newborn baby on set is not as easy as one may think. She’s shooting scenes, baby cries, she stresses over that, baby holds up production and the shooting day goes over.
Yes, well all of us working mothers have had those issues and then some. What about the new Mom who is a nurse on 12 hour shifts…not just for 4 or 5 months but all 12 months? Or the factory worker mom who works 12 hours shifts? Or the hairdresser who is on her feet for 10 or 12 hours a day. Oh and let’s not forget the amount of money these “pretenders” make to entertain us compared to these other careers/jobs.
I have been a huge fan of the show since I watched the first episode of season 1 18 months ago…I love Claire Danes and if she wants to be a stay at home mom, I’ll miss her character and her portrayal of Carrie but oh well. But do not for one minute think that any actress outworks any other working Mom…some with 2, 3 or more kids, because you would be 100% wrong to do so.
@migdalia
I don’t think anyone is suggesting she’d have her baby right there on set during filming. He would be in his mother’s trailer with a nanny, and she could visit him/feed him between takes several times a day – far more than the average working mother can do. Plus, even if she’s ‘doing a 12 hour day’ it’s not as though she’d be working flat out the whole time. She’d have lots of down-time when she’s not needed in scenes being filmed.
I worked 7 am to 7:30 pm, three shifts a week as a nurse on a high volume trauma unit. I gave birth twice during my employment there, plus breastfed. I’m not trying to pull out a “my life is harder than yours” card here, but c’mon. Sometimes it was next to impossible for me to get off the unit to go pump, and I had to do that three times a shift. Ms. Danes will have accommodations in place that I could have only dreamt of.
I was turned off at the final episode of season 1. I don’t get the hype. I think the original Israeli series that this show is based on is way better.
NOOOOO!!! As much as I love Brody and Saul, Homeland is Carrie. She’s the strongest link there. If they decided to kill her or whatever, the show should end right there.
Claire Danes IS the show!
Without her character, the show will lose it’s intrigue and timing.
She won’t leave. Not after all her years in acting and finally SHINING in her career.
Nope – this is a rumor or possibly a salary negotiation ploy.
I wouldn’t watch it without her, although I do love Saul. This season has been a mixed bag for me, and I hate the Brody/Carrie thing. He should have died at the end of season one, but they just devoted too much screen time to him and his family. I hope he dies early in season 3, and Carrie pulls the trigger.
Anyway, this is from the Enquirer? Dismissed.
I don’t know if this is true, but she did the same thing on My So Called Life. The show had to be cancelled because she wanted to leave to pursue film. I’m still kind of pissed at her for it because that show is amazing and I wanted to see more. Oh well.
Wow. I didn’t know that’s why they cancelled the show! I loved that show! Now I’m kinda ticked at her…
Thank you for this! I remember she was the one begging and begging for the cancellation of it. 🙁
There is no way this show will survive without her character unless they take the time to incorporate someone who is just as interesting and dynamic prior to her demise or leaving. I mean seriously the show IS her.
NOOOOOOOOOO! I hope this is not true :(((((
She’d be foolish to leave. Didn’t she pull the same stunt with My So-Called Life? And no offense, but she did NOT become some mega-star after that. Instead she had an affair with a man who left his very pregnant girlfriend to be with her, and many people found it more difficult to like her after that. I sure did.
She’s great now on Homeland, I’m sure, but great TV actors who make the mistake of quitting too often usually find that eventually, no one wants to take a chance on them because heaven forbid they have a hit show, it could be over too quickly if the actor decides to “quit the business” or “take time off” again. You can only pull that crap so many times.
oh please, yeah go bite the hand that feeds you. Oooh I’m an actor working 5 months a year is soooo hard especially when I don’t work 5 days a week because I’m in an ensemble cast, boohoo.
I really try to make abstraction of “Clare Danes” cause I love the show, but Clare Danes is soooooooo Goopy. She’s is beyond full of her own importance and ideas and irritates the crap out of me. She overacts terribly everything, but it works well for Carrie cause Carrie’s a mess.
So yeah, I think they could definitely replace her though, if hey hire a good bunch of actors to replace the characters they killed off, someone intriguing to replace Damian Lewis , develop Quinn’s character and get F. Murray Abrahams as a regular (imagine!) add to that a return to a proper thriller/ who’s the mole format and then Carrie could become expendable for sure (and what a great coup that would be, the show would be bigger than its characters!) That would be great cause seriously who is Carrie without Brody, those 2 together were bigger than the sum of their parts. Carrie by herself…meh, we’ll see…
The baby is 2 weeks old. She may change her mind after the novelty of infant care wears off, unless she’s got a night nurse.
I’d much rather they kill off Brody – his story arc seems like it would be done after Season 3.
And I seriously doubt Danes would leave. She’s already signed on for Season 3, which will presumably film when her son is really young, and Season 4 would film when he’s a bit bigger.
I actually hope that Homeland ends after season 3 and closes strong. Too often the shows I love go on too long and this story really shouldn’t be stretched endlessly.
No way in hell will she leave this show. It wouldn’t be Homeland without Carrie. I love Claire as Carrie, she is fantastic. I am going through Carrie withdrawal as I type…