Damian Lewis praised for 'photographic, weird memory'

Damian Lewis has been praised by a director for his "photographic, weird memory".

The Pressure star showed off an unusual talent on the set of the World War II movie.

Director Anthony Maras revealed the actor was able to nail a seemingly impossible acting task so effortlessly, it was simply "weird".

"Damian Lewis has to do a scene where he has to speak for two minutes in front of a video or a film projector, showing what all the preparations have been done for D-Day up until that point," Anthony told People Magazine, explaining the scene was shot towards the very end of the filming schedule.

"We didn't cut this until the last minute."

As it was so late in the planning, Anthony had planned to fudge the scene using computer technology to sync up Damian's narration with the video playing behind him - but he didn't have to.

"He didn't have time to prepare, so initially, I was going to do it on a computer in such a way as to time it to how he spoke," Anthony explained. "He said, 'Forget all that, let me see the video.' "

Despite being warned he would need to memorise the exact timing of two minutes' worth of dialogue, Anthony said Damian, 55, was completely confident after watching the video just twice over.

"He said, 'Let me have a look at it.' He looks, (says), 'Show me it one more time.' He goes, 'All right, I'm ready.'" the director recalled.

"I'm like, 'Come on, mate.' He goes, 'I'm ready'!"

Anthony was then stunned to watch Damian deliver the dialogue in perfect alignment with the video playing behind him.

"I don't know what kind of photographic, weird memory he has, but he synced his speech to the frame, to the second, of what was playing behind him that he'd only seen twice," he continued.

"He's got some kind of special talent for that, or eyes in the back of his head maybe, I don't know."