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 just have to take control of your own performance.

In the end, there's something of the puritan work ethic about me that roles really must sustain me on an intellectual level.

The best shows succeed because they tap into a national conversation.

We are not telling Tudor history; we are creating ' Wolf Hall ' from novels, which are already a rereading of Tudor history.

I've done classical theaters. I played Hamlet myself and Romeo.

A cricket ball broke my nose when I was a kid so I couldn't breath through it. Before I had it operated on I used to stand on stage with my mouth slightly open.