I don't mean this grandly, but it was never my intention to live in L.A. and do a big network show.

I think people like to be scared. I think people like tension and suspense in a movie.

It's certainly true that I was brought up in that British amateur tradition, the one which always held that if you were reasonably good at cricket, knew one or two Latin texts and a few zingy Oscar Wilde quotes for dinner parties, you were pretty much ready to go and run some outpost in Hindustan.

I want to make a clear distinction between people who take acting seriously and people who call themselves actors because theyve been on reality TV or something.

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.

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

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