Claire Danes has been playing (now ex) CIA agent Carrie Mathison on Homeland since 2011. Six years and six seasons later, the 37-year-old actress has been through quite a lot, vicariously. Carrie, who is bipolar, has been in terrifying situations overseas — in war zones and hotbeds of terrorism — and her life threatened more times than we can count. And it sounds like it's taken a toll on the woman playing her.
Danes opened up about her hopes for the fraught character on The Ellen DeGeneres Show on Tuesday. "I'm always hoping for a little relief for Carrie. It's pretty hard," she told DeGeneres. "Lots of crying. There's a lot of reasons to cry." Danes continued, "I just would like her to play Monopoly with Frannie. One game of Monopoly — benign, easy, chill. That's always my little wish for her is some domestic bliss. I think she deserves that."
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That might not sound like the most scintillating Sunday night television — especially since viewers are accustomed to deciphering government coverups and elaborate terrorism plots that end in dramatic shootouts and literal ticking time-bombs. ("Will she pass Go?" doesn't make for a great cliffhanger.) But Danes has been making the argument that Carrie deserves some R&R for quite awhile. “I want to see more of the boring work involved in just maintaining a healthy plateau,” she told the New Yorker in 2013. “I think we have to see her slog through the daily grind. I think we owe it to audiences.”
Homeland has at least two confirmed seasons left to give Danes what she wants and Carrie what she deserves. Who knows? Maybe it will be the most banal, anticlimactic series finale of all time: game night at Carrie's house.
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