Damian Lewis - Damian Lewis Feels Guilty Leaving Children To Film Homeland

British actor Damian Lewis struggles to leave his children to film Homeland in America and is wracked with guilt whenever he works away from home.

The drama, which also stars Claire Danes, has become a cult hit since its 2011 launch, and Lewis spends five months a year shooting the show in Charlotte, North Carolina.

However, the actor admits saying goodbye to daughter Manon, six, and five-year-old son Gulliver at the family home in London leaves him heartbroken.

He tells Britain's Vogue magazine, "I was talking to Gully about something completely different and suddenly, without even looking at me, he said, 'D'you know Dad? When you're away sometimes I look out of my bedroom window at night and I call your name, and I cry'.

"I wrestle with this. I wrestle with it. Children like you being around. They just really like you being around. I don't think there is any substitute for doing it well and just doing it right. And doing it right is just being there. Nobody is perfect but being there is a good start."

Lewis' actress wife Helen MCCrory makes a conscious effort not to accept roles while her husband is away, and adds, "It has got to be a damn good offer to coax me away from them, which is probably why the projects I have worked on since they were born have been such interesting ones."