Homeland may be over for David Harewood, but he’s been speaking about working with the cast, including Claire Danes, Mandy Patinkin and Damian Lewis.

David Harewood’s time may be up on Homeland, but he has been speaking about his time on the award-winning series with SSN. Harewood quickly cemented his place over two seasons worth of Homeland by becoming one of the most intriguing characters on the series, and Harewood says that a lot of that is down to working with the cast.

Harewood notes, “I got to see great screen acting up close with Mandy, Damian and Claire. I was watching this magic happen before my eyes. Estes had no subplot, no emotional life, I felt he was hiding something. Turns out that’s exactly what the writers felt; they didn’t quite want to locate this guy.”

Harewood continues, “For the first four or five episodes, I did background stuff and none of it was working. I talked to Mandy one day and he told me to relax. I got this note from the director during my first scene with Damian, us two Brits, and I get on very well with Damian.”

“We played this scene and the director took me to one side and said, ”I just saw David and Damian in that scene. I can see you like him. Next take, don’t let me see what you’re thinking.”

“Next take, I gave him nothing! And it was so exciting because I didn’t have to do anything. I kept a blank page. And I thought to myself, I really enjoyed that. Then Estes became Mr. Ambiguity for me. Everything I did was ultra-ambiguous.”

Unfortunately, we won’t be seeing Harewood in action any time soon during Homeland, after he was killed off in the Homeland season 2 finale. The backstory that never really got going with Estes is what made him so interesting, and to some extent, incredibly well liked.

Harewood also describes his time working with the main cast, and how this was his most memorable time during filming. And credit to Harewood, because leaving the show in such a tragic way ensures that we’ll never really know the real David Estes.

“Whether I was in a scene with Claire [Danes], Damian or Mandy [Patinkin], I was as ambiguous as I could be. No one knew if he was good, bad or the mole. It gives me great pleasure that people don’t know, to this day, if he’s a good guy or a bad guy,” said Harewood.

Harewood comments, “Working with those fantastic actors. I’ve learned an enormous amount about screen acting, and about the business. It was just incredible. It’s been an amazing journey for me. I’ve learned from the best and acted with the best and I’m really very proud of that.”

Homeland season 3 returns to Showtime on September 29.