As an actor, you are aware of how a role can seep into your real life.

I struggle to learn by rote. I've had meltdowns on set. Which is embarrassing and shameful.

I actually do mind having a photo taken because it's one o'clock in the morning and I'm off my face.

Do I like being thought of as attractive? I don’t know anyone on Earth who doesn’t, but I do find it funny. I look in a mirror and I see all the faults I’ve lived with for 35 years and yet people go kind of nuts for certain things about me. It’s not me being humble. I just think it’s weird.

Our daily lives are so mundane, we get taken over by what is immediately in front of us and we don't see beyond that.

That's something I have to work on: to separate what really matters, to conserve energy by not worrying about what other people think. When I walk through that door, it's about home. If I didn't do that, I'd become consumed by one thing only and damage the people who love me. And it would damage the work.

I know that might sound perverse because I played Julian Assange but, honestly, I don't think it would be fair for me to judge the man. I realize that makes me a bit of a hypocrite because I was portraying him a certain way, but we were always open to the fact that this was an interpretation, not any kind of exact evidence of who the man was.