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

You never know when you're taking a job, ever... but you try to take good scripts. That's all you can do as an actor - take the best thing available. Even then, it's not [really] in your control. Certainly not in film and TV, because there are so many other elements. You just have to take control of your own performance.

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

Dramatically it's always more interesting to conceal rather than reveal things.

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.

Of course the lower classes have always felt downtrodden and aspired to a better life. But there is this theory that people respond to a class structure in England - there was a time when people knew who they were and knew whom they served and as long as management wasn't abusive, it was a good life for people.

You know, I think I am faintly spiritual.