Hollywood actor Damian Lewis has been researching an upcoming role with a low-key visit to a university library.
The Homeland star (right with co-star Claire Danes) is to play opposite Nicole Kidman as the lover of Gertrude Bell in director Werner Herzog's Queen Of The Desert, due for release next year.
Bell was a British traveller, writer, diplomat and spy in the Middle East in the early 20th century.
Lewis visited Newcastle University's Robinson Library to view the Gertrude Bell Archive, a collection of her personal papers, photos and diaries.
Included are letters to and from his character, Major Charles Doughty-Wylie, a married man who had an unconsummated affair with Bell. News the visit emerged when the university posted a photo on its Twitter feed of Lewis posing with a librarian.
Heart-throb Robert Pattinson will also appear in the film as Lawrence of Arabia.
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