'I struggled to work for two years before Homeland': Claire Danes reveals she nearly gave up acting as she glams up for Vogue with co-star Damian Lewis

Her career seemed to be on an unassailable high after she scooped an Emmy Award for her titular role in HBO drama Temple Grandin back in 2010.
But Claire Danes's acting career went on to stall so badly, that she considered giving up.
'It was grim. I was very hurt,' she tells Vogue magazine in a new interview. 'Two years of not working was brutal. And a point came where I thought, "I really like interior design." Someone suggested "Maybe your real success is in your personal life."

Soldier spy: Claire Danes promotes the forthcoming third season of Homeland by posing in a stunning silver dress on a bed with on-screen love interest Damian Lewis in the August issue of Vogue magazine

'It was confusing,' she adds. 'I got a lot of plaudits, and it didn’t translate into more work. I was really, really struggling during that time.'
Luckily, the 34-year-old star was offered the role of bipolar Carrie Mathison on Showtime drama Homeland, which returns for its third season in September in the U.S..
The series has attracted impressive ratings and given Danes a much-needed boost to her career and raised her British co-star Damian Lewis's profile in the U.S. 
The actors both recreate their characters in a more glamorous-than-usual setting - for photographer Annie Leibovitz in the new issue of Vogue.

Nights in high fashion: Claire and Damian pose in character in an interrogation room, with the actress looking stunning in a teal blue Calvin Klein Collection dress

Claire sports a stunning teal blue Calvin Klein dress in one photograph which recreates the infamous interrogation scene between the co-stars in series two. 

Another striking shot features Danes wearing a Narciso Rodriguez silver silk-charmeuse dress and lying on top of a uniformed Lewis on a bed.
On the cover, the actress wears a chic gold belted trench coat while the tagline brands her a 'Comeback Kid.'
However, she admits to instead nearly choosing to play the part of secretary to Leonardo DiCaprio’s J. Edgar Hoover in Clint Eastwood’s 2011 biopic film.

High fashion spy: Claire looks chic in a gold trench coat on the cover of the August issue of Vogue magazine

Starry night: Danes and husband Hugh Dancy, at January's Golden Globes where she won the Best Actress gong

'I was like, "Do I want to play the secretary to the boss man or do I want to be the boss man?" she admits to Vogue. 'I was scared of it, and I thought, "OK, right, that means I have to do it.”'
Homeland has won the actress a series of awards including the Golden Globe gong for Best Actress in a Television Series back in January.
Danes attended the ceremony at the Beverly Hilton Hotel with husband Hugh Dancy while her parents looked after their newborn son Cyrus in a room upstairs.
'I went on the red carpet, went upstairs, fed Cyrus. Went into the ceremony, got the award, went back to feed Cyrus, went out again,' she recalls to the magazine. 'I’m wearing a big Jessica Rabbit dress, and I’d been living in sweat pants for so long. It was strange. It was dreamy, surrounded by my parents and my husband. It was one of the best nights of my life because of this perfect mash-up.'
Having grown up acting -  appearing as Angela in cult series My So Called Life aged 15 -  Danes reveals she is 'so impressed' with the maturity of young stars Jennifer Lawrence and Carey Mulligan.
'They have this exquisite taste,' she says. 'They are very gifted in their ability to make great choices. I didn’t have that rudder.'
But she looks to older stars like Jodie Foster, Meryl Streep and Susan Sarandon for acting  advice learning that: 'You have to ask for money because there’s always more money and they won’t give it to you because you’re a girl!'
Danes returns for the third series of the show in September, and although says she has a 'good chemistry' with her character, admits she had to face a few fears about taking on Carrie again.
'I always have the fear that I won’t be able to do it, because I am convinced that it’s left me and I don’t know how I managed it before,' she admits.
'You just hold out for those rare moments when you feel a real fusion with this imagined person,' she says. 'It’s really like surfing. You get that wave and think, All right, I can be in freezing-cold water at 5am in the hopes that I will get one. And maybe you get three of those a year.'

It's a hit: Danes and Lewis as Mathison and Sgt Brody in Homeland which returns to U.S. screens in September