I had the privilege of being able to choose, or at least have the opportunity to work at, being anything but an actor.

I had to imagine myself into certain aspects of [Julian Assange] character for our version of events. That involved extrapolating based on clues in his biography, his public persona, photographs, and other accounts of him by people who encountered him during that extraordinary period from 2007 to 2010 that we charted in the film [The Fifth Estate]. So, it involved a lot of research but, sadly, no contact with the man himself.

Mum did a lot of commercial theatre and farces in the 1980s and '90s to make sure the school bills were paid.

The awful lesson of history is that we too often ignore people, just because they're foreigners or different from us.

Enjoy the journey of life and not just the endgame. I'm also a great believer in treating others as you would like to be treated.

I wanted to take the audience on a journey where that transition was funny and awkward. It's the same cynicism that [Strange] has.

Cumberbatch - it sounds like a fart in a bath, doesn't it? What a fluffy old name. I can never say it on a Monday morning. When I became an actor, Mum wasn't keen on me keeping it.