Danes: Homeland role exhausting

Claire Danes has admitted that playing her Homeland character isn't easy.

The US actress has won a Golden Globe for her performance as bipolar CIA agent Carrie Mathison, and is up for Individual Achievement in Drama by the US Television Critics Association.

"The pitch she's on is so high, and to maintain that hyper-vigilance is exhausting. But it's fun," she told the Los Angeles Times.

"I like her - she's smarter than I am, and definitely more bad-a** than I am. It's fun to wear her cape," she added.

Learning Carrie's lines is also a challenge for the actress.

"All that CIA-speak - it's a lot of lines to learn. The good thing is that Carrie's under pressure a lot of the time, so if I'm under pressure it's useful. But still, there are times when I just want to jab a pencil through my ear," she said.

Claire revealed she was hesitant about returning to the small screen, following her roles in teenage-angst series My So-Called Life and 2010's Temple Grandin, which won her both a Golden Globe and an Emmy.

"I was a little apprehensive about the intensity of it," she explained.

"I was unsure if it was almost too relevant and would be exploitational and confronting and too distressing - but, ultimately, I had not encountered a character that was so dynamic and specific for a very long time."

The second series of Homeland will be shown on Channel 4 in late 2012.