You're an actor who's Irish, not an Irish actor. And you shouldn't be limited by your extraction.

That's what acting is about, Funny wigs and voices, that's what we do.

For me, drama is conflict.

I've had the pleasure and the great luck to work with some incredible actors over the years and you have to observe and learn and take something from it and try and become better yourself.

I've always felt kind of safe on stage, protected. I've talked to other performers about this and they feel the same things, particularly in the live arena. I never get nervous going on stage to do a play. Doing film or television I'll have more butterflies.

It seemed to work on camera. And there's very few films - because you make a lot of films and you meet people and you work very intensely and intimately and then you're gone - but there's a few where you actually make friends, and this [The Fall] was one.

For me it's always been about the stories, not what medium. The medium is secondary to the stories.