The audience's expectations are ever-present.

That's the imagination that happens in the theater. That imagination is translated in film by the film magicians and all the technology.

Acting is a very personal process. It has to do with expressing your own personality, and discovering the character you're playing through your own experience - so we're all different.

When you were on stage, you could be absolutely open about your emotions and indulge them and express yourself in a way that - in real life - I wasn't doing.

I'm cheaper than Anthony Hopkins. The other actors they asked to play Gandalf wouldn't go to New Zealand on that money for that length of time. I thought it would be a bit of an adventure. Tony Hopkins didn't think it would be an adventure. Tony is part of Hollywood. I'm an eccentric English actor, and there's a lot of us around.

The audience's expectations are ever-present.

All other areas of my life, I'm hopeless. I can't even be certain how to boil an egg.