Rupert Friend Joins ‘Strange Angel,’ Continues Career Reboot After Killer Run On ‘Homeland’

Rupert Friend fans no longer have to mourn about his shocking departure from the hit series Homeland last year. The English actor has a new role in the new Sci-Fi drama Strange Angel.

The new CBS All Access show tells the true story of Jack Parsons, a rocket scientist turned follower of famed English occultist Aleister Crowley. While fans of Friend have witnessed him murder countless people as CIA agent Peter Quinn in the popular Showtime series Homeland, his new role in Strange Angel was not one that he readily accepted.

After playing such a brooding character for six seasons, Friend told The New York Times that he didn’t exactly jump at the idea of spending another five years in such a dark role. However, Friend warmed up to the idea of the character who he described as “the kind of guy who asks you for a beer and you know it’s going to end in jail, but you want to go anyway.”

At just 36, Friend has shared big and small screens with some of the most prominent names in the business. From starring alongside Johnny Depp in The Libertine to appearing in the Oscar-nominated film Pride and Prejudice, Friend has made a name for himself in Hollywood.

When he took on the role of Peter Quinn on Homeland in 2012, fans fell in love and even took out a full-page advertisement in The Hollywood Reporter after his character was killed off of the series. In his last season on the show, Friend went from playing a hardcore assassin to a stroke survivor who struggled with PTSD.

The actor spoke about being inspired after portraying a stroke survivor like Quinn on television.

“The idea that Peter Quinn was just going to sit around and give up, it was never going to happen. This is a guy who finds a way and gets a job done,” Friend told The Hollywood Reporter last year. “It doesn’t matter if he’s only using one side of his body. He’s still going to pull it off with alacrity.”

Before Friend signed up to work on Strange Angel, he was unsure of what would come next for his career after Homeland. Instead of worrying about the next project, Friend chose to embrace the unknown.

“The great unknown. There’s something I really believe in, which is to allow yourself to be empty, so that you can let the flood come in again — rather than just continuously accomplishing tasks,” Friend told THR. “I think it’s more exciting to wait and feel your curiosity pull you in a direction than force it.”