I was quite shy. I used to write stories all the time, and I think that was a worry for my parents.

I sometimes think it's like a weird elastic band. The more tragic your work is, the quicker you snap back. There's a catharsis in telling a miserable old tale; you get rid of demons.

In theatre, there's the director, the writer, and below them the actor. In film, it's the actors who are most important. That goes against the grain for me.

Any kind of conflict draws me to a role.

You can't worry too much about profile; otherwise, you become a different kind of actor, and that's not the kind of actor I want to be.

That's the thing - you do a job like 'Shameless,' and suddenly that's why you can get a job like 'The Virgin Queen', not because of all the classical theatre you've done. But we can be very snippy about television. It's absolutely the most potent and powerful form of storytelling we have.

I was quite shy. I used to write stories all the time, and I think that was a worry for my parents.