I had heard all sorts of stories about Woody Allen's directing - directorial approach. And some of them turned out to be myth. But, one of them was that he doesn't rehearse and another was that he doesn't really direct, if he doesn't like it...he cuts it out of the movie, or even replaces you.

My singing voice is somewhere between a drunken apology and a plumbing problem.

Looking in the mirror, staring back at me isn't so much a face as the expression of a predicament.

Firth - all dodgy 'tache and frantic eyebrows - has got the sexual allure of a man who runs a swingers' club in Surbiton.

So, if you haven't picked up some tips during an apprenticeship like that, you shouldn't be directing. It doesn't mean you can do it, but it loads you up with information.

I do think I'm a character actor.

I do notice that when I've been away and I come back to London. People look at you. People are ready to pick arguments.