You take what you know, and you put it through your own prism. If I play characters that break down or cry, it's Gary Oldman crying; it's not the character crying.

I tend to read non-fiction.

I drank for about 25 years getting over the loss of my father and I took the anger out on myself. I did a good job at beating myself up at sometimes. I don't drink anymore but my alcoholic head occasionally says different. 'Nil By Mouth' was a love letter to my father because I needed to resolve some issues in order to be able to forgive him.

I never told my father I loved him before he died, and I have a lot of issues about that. They're all swimming around in my head, in my heart, unresolved, and in a way it felt fitting to dedicate the film to him.

At the Oscars, if you didn't vote for '12 Years a Slave' you were a racist.

How many movies do you see when you can say this director really knew what film he wanted to make? I can count them on the fingers of one hand.

I got obsessed with classical music, I got obsessed with Chopin, with playing the piano.