Danes: Carrie is my kinky alter ego

Claire Danes has revealed she thinks of CIA agent Carrie Mathison as a "kinky superhero".

The Homeland star admits playing bipolar, workaholic, paranoid worrier Carrie is hard work but she loves it.

Claire told GQ magazine: "I like her a lot. She's like my kinky superhero alter ego now.

"Because as disturbed and troubled as she is, she's always f***ing right! Which is nice because I rarely am."

But the 33-year-old actress - who is expecting her first child with husband Hugh Dancy - revealed the crew wouldn't let her drive home after a 15-hour day shooting Carrie's breakdown in the first series.

She said: "It can get a little dodgy. It does happen. Sometimes I'm just not able to do it."

And Claire insists she doesn't worry about what she look like when she's acting, she just lets herself go.

She said: "I don't have much vanity in my work. I have plenty in my life, but when I'm playing someone else I think, 'Well, if she's ugly, it's not me, it's her,' so I'm not limited by that.

"I'm always amazed when I see actors checking the monitor to see how they look. That's so alien to me. That's so bananas!

"But it's usually just a feeling that I allow to surface and I don't really know how it's registering on my face, but it just does."