It's interesting - an actor's research is different to just historian's research. I'm looking for things that I can actually physically use in the movie.

It's really an organic sort of process. You start off with the character on the page. You fall in love with that character and you have to represent that character well and I think it's just an evolution there. Using the accent and speaking the lines with the accent in fact opens the door to who the character really is.

I know there are some actors who are just brilliant at improvising and brilliant at just being in the moment and doing it there and then. I'm not one of those actors.

A few people have said that I should change my name and the spelling so that people can say it, but I don't want to, I like it the way it is.

Television is what we're all very attracted to because that's where the best writing and the best characters are.

People in America and Hollywood are very good at pronouncing my name, to begin with. Socially, they're very adept at listening to somebody's name and repeating it, cleverly in the first couple of sentences so the name sticks to begin with.

It's interesting - an actor's research is different to just historian's research. I'm looking for things that I can actually physically use in the movie.