The actor told TVLine that he is happy for his performance to have provoked a mixed reaction.
"I don't mind playing unlikeable roles," he explained. "I've done it before. One of the things you should seek to achieve as an actor is that your character is understood somehow.
"I've had people come up to me and say, 'You're a guy who is going to blow up the vice president, you're lying to your wife and you just generally scare the hell out of us, because you are unpredictable and unknown - and yet we oddly kind of liked you'."
The actor added that it is the viewer's "choice" to decide whether or not Brody's actions can be justified.
"Some people will... choose to not like you, and that's fine," he said. "But... we were at great pains to find motivations for him, and [the writers] successfully did that.
"In the 17th century, when actors were given a play, 'the argument' was the word for the script, and I approach characters like that. I put forward my side of the argument."
Homeland exec Howard Gordon recently revealed that Brody's daughter Dana (Morgan Saylor) will grow suspicious of her father in the show's second season.
"She's processed a lot," said Gordon. "We don't quite know what she thinks of that last call she made to him, so we'll find out!"
Homeland will return to Showtime in the US on September 30. Channel 4 has picked up the rights to air season two in the UK, with a late 2012 broadcast planned.
