Claire Danes isn’t securing these behind-the-scenes secrets.
The actress, 46, revealed a shocking on-set moment that occurred while filming the Season 3 finale of “Homeland,” titled “The Star.”
Danes opened up about Brody’s (Damian Lewis) tragic death during an appearance on Amy Poehler’s “Good Hang” podcast on Tuesday. Brody was sentenced to death by public hanging at the hands of the Iranians in the episode.
Claire Danes on Amy Poehler’s “Good Hang” podcast. Good Hang with Amy Poehler/Youtube
The cast of “Homeland.” Showtime
“When Brody died, that sequence — it was also really rough, just really graphic. They really went there,” she said, appearing agitated. “Like, come on. It was so intense.”
“He dies on a crane, but then the crane, when we were filming, broke! So, we were really hung up by that,” Danes shared.
“Homeland” aired for eight seasons from 2011 to 2020, with the “Romeo + Juliet” star explaining: “We’d reimagine ourselves every year.”
Claire Danes in Season 8 of “Homeland.” ©Showtime Networks Inc./Courtesy Everett Collection
With every new season, the show’s location changed, taking place in New York City, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Berlin.
Production had Danes and her family living in different cities around the world during filming.
“That was in Morocco, but, yeah, the first three seasons we were mostly in Charlotte, N.C., which was standing in for D.C., and we’d shoot a month in Israel or Morocco or something,” the Emmy winner recalled. “When we had to really redefine the show in a more macro way, we then became this traveling enterprise. So, we were shooting in Cape Town [South Africa] for half a year, which was standing in for Palestine and Afghanistan. There was a year in Berlin, then a year in New York.”
A scene from “Homeland.” Showtime
Shooting domestically “was actually very strange” and “weirdly stressful” for Danes because “people expected me to go to dinner” since she was back home.
“Actually, I can’t do this and live my life. There was something nice about being on location and being allowed to give myself entirely to it, because I didn’t have energy to spare,” the “Stardust” actress told Poehler.
“That was almost the hardest season, because there was this illusion that I was living my life, and I couldn’t!”
A shot of Damian Lewis during the dramatic death scene in “Homeland.” Showtime
“Homeland” followed Danes as CIA agent Carrie Mathison who ended up falling in love with an American war prisoner (Lewis, 54).
Throughout the series’ run, Danes earned two Emmys, two Golden Globes, and an Actor Award.
While on Poehler’s podcast, the star also opened up about finding out she was pregnant with her third child at 44 years old.
Damian Lewis and Claire Danes in “Homeland.” ©Showtime Networks Inc./Courtesy Everett Collection
Claire Danes in Season 5 of the Showtime series. ©Showtime Networks Inc./Courtesy Everett Collection
Mandy Patinkin, Claire Danes in Season 2 of “Homeland.” ©Showtime Networks Inc./Courtesy Everett Collection
Danes recounted how she called her OBGYN in “convulsive tears.”
“It was a pure, like, meltdown,” she confessed. “None of this was by design. I didn’t know it was physically possible. I was 44.”
Danes gave birth to a baby girl in 2023.
She went on to discuss her sons Cyrus, 13, and Rowan, 7, and her daughter, now 2, whom she shares with husband Hugh Dancy.
David Harewood, Mandy Patinkin, Claire Danes, Damian Lewis, Jackson Pace, Morena Baccarin, Morgan Saylor and Diego Klattenhoff at the Emmys in 2012. FilmMagic
Claire Danes wins Best Actress for “Homeland” during the 65th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards in 2013. Getty Images
Claire Danes and Hugh Dancy attend Netflix’s “The Beast In Me” New York premiere on Nov. 5, 2025. WireImage
“Rowan was very hard-earned. I had to do two rounds of IVF,” she shared.
Danes opened up about her third pregnancy in November 2025 while on the “SmartLess” podcast.
“I was so old when that happened,” she added, noting that she felt “shame.”
“Like I was naughty. I’d been caught fornicating past the point I was meant to,” Dane explained. “It was weird, and it was like I found an edge that I hadn’t been quite conscious of.”
“I was going outside of the parameters a little bit,” the mom-of-three, who tied the knot with Dancy, 50, in 2009, continued. “That was wild.”