Americans are a lot more open, of course. There's something more declamatory in the way you express emotions. It's a stereotype but it's true. British people can appear repressed in expressing emotions. Not very good at self-evaluating, or affirming situations, touching, anything like that.

I do strive to find projects that are trying to carve out some new space. I enjoy projects that leap away from the crowd a little bit.

With Ricky Gervais, it's all shades of wrong, it's my kind of humor.

A lot of period dramas can appear quite arch to most people, stuffy.

I think I'm drawn to characters with complexity or who are under duress in some way and have some conflict going on.

If you're very open to watching the world go by, with people's different tics, you absorb it all without realizing it and find ways to put something into your character. I'm not sure I'm always aware I'm mimicking someone.

To not make any resolutions. Whenever I make them, I wind up ultimately breaking them. I think a lot of people are that way, so I am going to try and avoid inevitable disappointment next year and just not make any.