- His acting idol is the late Philip Seymour Hoffman. Considers Daniel Day Lewis, Sean Penn, Heath Ledger, Mark Ruffalo, Christian Bale, Shia Labeouf, Peter Sarsgaard, Matthias Schoenaerts, Michael Shannon, & Joaquin Phoenix to be his favourite actors.
- Has a tattoo on his right forearm to honor the late, and deeply talented actor Philip Seymour Hoffman. He has stated that Phil Hoffman was his acting idol. He adored him in the films 'Owning Mahoney', 'Love Liza', Synecdoche New York, and 'Before the Devil Knows Your Dead'.
- Has a tattoo on his right wrist in memory of one of his acting heroes, Heath Ledger. He was so inspired by his performance in the films 'Candy', and 'Brokeback Mountain' that he decided to get a tattoo to honor him.
- Went to the Citadel's Foot theatre school in 2005 with Two-time Juno award nominee Kreesha Turner, Actress Michelle Molineux, and actor/writer Neil Chase.
- Considers Gena Rowlands, Isabelle Huppert, Tilda Swinton, Viola Davis, Asia Argento, Rachel Weisz, Emily Mortimer, Jennifer Jason Leigh,Abbie Cornish, Grace Gummer, Katherine Waterston, Evan Rachel Wood, Adele Exarchopoulos,Carey Mulligan, Chloe Sevigny, Kristen Stewart, and Natalie Portman to be the best actresses of their generation. Believe's Gena Rowlands performance in 'A Woman Under the Influence' to be the finest female performance in the history of cinema.
Considers Andrea Riseborough's performance in To Leslie to be the greatest modern day performance since Casey Affleck in Manchester by the Sea.
Loved the film 'Blue is the warmest colour', and believes the performances of Adele Exarchopoulos and Lea Seydoux to be the stuff of legend. - For the film 'U17' Damian used the same movie tattoo company as Ryan Gosling did for the film 'A Place Beyond the Pines." Which is also one of his favourite films. He adored Ryan Gosling when growing up as a young actor and wrote an essay on him and Sean Penn to get into film school. He watched Half Nelson & Stay at least twice a week for years to study his performance and mannerisms. He can literally do all of his dialogue verbatim in both films. His favourite performances of his are Half Nelson, Stay, A place beyond the Pines, The Believer, and Blue Valentine.
- Is a lover of non-English speaking films. He adores French cinema, and French New Wave. He also is a huge fan of Korean cinema, and adores the works of Lee Chang Dong and the late Kim Ki Duk. Some of the films he adores most are Fatih Akins 'The Edge of Heaven', and 'In the Fade", Julian Schnabel's 'The Diving Bell and the Butterfly', Kim Ki Duk's 3-Iron, Lee Chang Dong's 'Burning', Jaques Audiard's 'The Beat That My Heart Skipped & ' A Prophet',Abdellatif Kechiche's 'Blue Is The Warmest Colour', Luca Guagdanino's 'I am Love.'.
- Attended the Vancouver Film School in 2006 at the same time as actor Kerry James.
- Is a huge fan of Director Kathryn Bigelow. One of his most cherished films is "Zero Dark Thirty", he's watched the film at least 25 times. He is also a massive fan of the film 'Interstellar.' A film in which he's watched too many times to count, and could literally watch it everyday.
- He is a huge admirer of Chris Farley, and has a deep respect for the late actor, and SNL alum. He adores 'Tommy Boy', and 'Beverly Hills Ninja'.
- Was named after actor Michael Damian who portrayed Danny Romalotti on the soap opera 'The Young & the Restless.
- His Grandfather was an Actor in China & Japan in Film, TV, and in Stage. As well as a director and playwright for the stage.
- Is a huge fan of comedian Artie Lang, and has a deep respect for his work on the Howard Stern show.
- Was honored to work with Jonathan Cherry and Sara Canning in a small role on the film Dark Match. All three of them attended and graduated from Vancouver Film School.
- Considers Steven Ogg to be the best actor he's ever had the privilege to work opposite.
- American Honey is one of his most cherished films of all time. He adores director Andrea Arnold, and owns all her works on blu ray including all her short films. He loved the film so much and the performances of Shia Labeouf ,and Sasha Lane that he got a tattoo to commemorate his experience as he said it was similar to his experience in acting and producing the feature film Paris's Apple.
- Considers Justin Kurzel to be one of the best director's in the world. He adores his film Nitram, and the performance of actor Caleb Landry Jones; who won Best Actor festival De'Cannes 2021 for the film. And considers him to be the best actor of his generation next to Shia Labeouf.
- He adores the works of Lars Von Trier, and considers him to be his favourite director of all time. Followed by Krystoff Kieslowski, Andrey Zvyagintsev, Jaques Audiard, Gus Van Sant, Kim Ki Duk, Lee Chang Dong, Bong Joon-Ho, Kathryn Bigelow, Jia Zhangke, David Fincher, Andrei Tarkovsky, Nicolas Winding Refn.
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