Often in America people would assume that [as an English actor] you've had some sort of deep, classical training, or that you're a Shakespeare enthusiast. I have zero interest in me performing Shakespeare.

I have no memory, any at all, of actually performing the play, no recall in terms of the lines. I can't tell you any line from any play I've ever done.

One of the things that is assumed about actors is that they are extrovert, which is almost never the case, in my experience.

I am a fan of rehearsal. I like doing it [scene] over and over and over and over until it looks like you never did it before.

Jerry Bruckheimer says that he makes films that he would want to see, and it seems that that coincides with what a lot of people want to see.

I quoted David Hare one of his lines the other day to illuminate whatever point we were trying to make in the conversation, and I said 'What play was that?' and he said 'It was your line, you said it about a hundred and fifty times in The Vertical Hour.'

I guess part of the hit-man appeal is the solitude. Everybody is lured to the idea of the solitary life.