A way of describing performances that I admire is that there is an absence of careerism. It's a clumsy way of describing it but it sort of does it for me.

One of the great regrets of my life is that I smoked. If I could say anything to anybody starting out in life it would be, 'Whatever you do, don't smoke'. I have had to recover from that and been lucky that I have been able to stop.

When I do a play, it's like agreeing to be ill for a couple of months.

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

When it comes to casual clothing, my enthusiasm for clothes starts to waver.

When a movie is called 'searingly honest,' it's almost invariably grim and demonstrates how bad things can get.

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.