One of the great privileges of having grown up in a middle-class literary English household, but having gone to school in the front lines in Southeast London, was that I became half-street-urchin and half-good-boy at home. I knew that dichotomy was possible.

I have no role models. Many heroes. I have an enormous capacity for hero worship.

For as long as I can remember, the thing that gave me a sense of wonderment and renewal... has always been the work of other actors.

When I do work, I feel the same sort of urgency as I ever did. If I didn't feel that, I don't think I would wish to be doing it. I wouldn't really see the point.

I find it difficult to be in rooms now for long periods of time. I can usually take it for about an hour. Then I stride out.

My preference is that, that day when someone sticks a tripod in front of you with a camera on the top, it is not day one.

I just knew at an early time in my life how important privacy was.