It's a wonderful thing working with young actors. I know a lot of people don't like working with children. I actually adore it, because you watch their imagination open up and you watch them start to learn this job that I've been doing for so long. They come with such a lack of cynicism.

One of my last few vices is coffee, but with a spot of almond or soymilk, it's never tasted better!

I was deliciously happy filming True Blood. I even kept all the scripts in my office, which I never do with any script. Although I did shred them all in one go when the series finished; it seemed like a ritual, somehow.

I've never had a plan. You look for different actors you want to work with or different subjects you want to explore, or sometimes it's just a momentary fancy.

A plant-based diet has actually simplified my life in so many ways. For breakfast, I try to get my first serving of fruits and nuts for fuel. I'm completely addicted to coconut water for the electrolytes and hydration.

If you look at some shows that have an ugly feel to them, or a nihilistic sort of feel to them, you'll usually find a group of cynical, unhappy, miserable people behind the production. If you see a show that's rather boring, or a cookie-cutter factory show, you'll usually find some pretty uninteresting, boring people behind it.

People ask me what the appeal of 'True Blood' is and I think there are so many answers to that question, but I think that when there is so much excitement for what you do there is no way that that doesn't become palpable and comes shooting out like bullets.