Theres something important, as an actor, about allowing yourself to be approached by people to do roles. People see different things in you.

Quiet people, people who arent given to emotional outbursts, people who are economic with words - theyre also fun to play, but you find yourself needing a laser precision in those roles. Otherwise you just sort of stand around, looking slightly brain-dead. You worry about being uninteresting.

You know, I think I am faintly spiritual.

There are ways of avoiding becoming tabloid fodder and therefore giving people license to pry into your private life. And there's a distinction between being an actor and being a celebrity. You may become a celebrity through acting, but you don't need to do so.

You know, this idea of going around the world imposing democracy by growing a middle-class, a trading merchant class that is independent of your faith, is a good notion, but we're all partially different - it's no good imposing systems on people that it doesn't suit.

I think you can't be really posh and be an interesting actor. I'm a bit of a posh rough.

It's an unfair comparison because when things are developed in the UK, they're developed at script stage only.