It's funny because growing up, when Ali G first burst off the screen, it was something that I was probably too young to be watching, but I absolutely loved it.

I never went to stage school or anything like that. It was always plays, productions at school and things like that. The thing for me with acting was it was the only thing I could fully concentrate on. I loved playing sports. I didn't really love studying.

I really do consider myself quite fledgling in my acting career. I've only been doing it for 10 years and that's a short amount of time, really.

I want to be 82 and doing movies with Paolo Sorrentino where people are like, "This is gold."

Comedy is not something that had necessarily jumped out as something I'd immediately go for.

My job isn't about pursuing fame and then becoming an actor. It's about becoming an actor and if fame follows suit, that's fine.

I did listen to 1920s jazz or Al Johnson and a lot of early singers coming out of England. I would branch out a little bit to get a sense of the world that he might be coming into, in the '30s when jazz was changing.