When you do bigger jobs there's more attention and when you film in New York you get loads of paparazzi everywhere. It affects your work because you're trying to think about the person you're acting with and you've got 20 other lenses taking pictures of you at the same time, and it throws you.

People always say, "You played such a strong character." I remember someone said that to me when I played a role in Shame, and she was a suicidal mess. I said, "She's not strong at all; she's incredibly weak." But "strong" to people means "real." It means you believe that's a person who exists, as opposed to some two-dimensional depiction of women.

When you start playing a character every day for seven weeks, it suddenly starts becoming easier.

It's so silly isn't it? how we grown men take up trout angling not simply to pursue trout but to find some place, some special place, where we feel at ease. a place to belong. Forces, not forms, persist: energy is spent and endures; time does not tick, it flows. God loves a man that smells of trout water and mountain meadows. Which way's heaven, you suppose? Follow the trail and keep close to the stream.

What doesn't draw you into a Coen Bros. movie. It's amazing. I can't believe it! They're the Coen Bros. It's ridiculous.

In London, people can be so... well, it's not even a case of people being unkind or unfriendly. You just don't make any contact in London. You go from A to B with your eyes on the pavement.

It was my dream for years... to train. Dominic [Cooper] went and he's doing alright. But some people don't go and do brilliantly. Although I think there are things I missed from not having trained. I think I'd be more confident on stage had I gone because I think it means you're equipped with better vocal training and things like that.