I don't call myself an expert because I've played experts. I know a little bit about very little. But it's very hard to not be drawn into saying something, especially if it has to do with the work.

I feel like I'm away for much of my own life.

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

Landing the role of Stephen Hawking was the most positively surprising thing that has happened to me.

I think what I loved in cinema - and what I mean by cinema is not just films, but proper, classical cinema - are the extraordinary moments that can occur on screen. At the same time, I do feel that cinema and theater feed each other. I feel like you can do close-up on stage and you can do something very bold and highly characterized - and, dare I say, theatrical - on camera. I think the cameras and the viewpoints shift depending on the intensity and integrity of your intention and focus on that.

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

Someone will always hate what I say. There’s always going to be somebody spitting blood about my wooden-faced, toffee-named, crappy acting.