[In "The Invisible Woman"] was a different type of performance which was less driven by improv. You always want moments of freshness and newness, but there was less so than I've done before.

I guess I'm a bit of a romantic.

I love not having to rely on anyone.

I've been very lucky. Directors I've worked with have been very amenable to changes.

I think [Charles] Dickens was an extrovert and Nelly [Ternan] an introvert, and I think that Nelly saw beyond the fame and adulation and she actually loved Dickens essentially for who he was. So I think he felt like she was someone he could be himself with.

I've never taken a role where I don't like a person on the page.

"The Theory of Everything" is an extraordinary story because [Jane Hawing] was incredibly religious and [Stephen Hawking] was an atheist, so you have this conflict both on a domestic level between a couple in a difficult situation but also this bigger conflict of science versus religion, so it's a really fascinating project.