As an actor, I think most people have a tendency to want to demonstrate that they can act, they can emote.

Every day, every scene, you were like, "My god. I'm doing a scene with Brian Cox today and then I'm onto a scene with Stephen Rea." For us young actors, I think we were all very, very star-struck and impressed by the caliber of everyone who came out.

There's so much going on in Andrei [Bolkonsky]. He's wrangling with these big existential conundrums, and he tries out different routes to fulfillment. He tries falling in love, that doesn't work. He goes to war and searches for military glory, that doesn't work. He does the quiet life of a farmer. He's always active. That's what I loved about him, he's always looking, searching. He's really inquisitive.

Being in Russia filming War & Peace...filming War & Peace alone is an extraordinary experience, but to be out there was just magical.

As an actor, I think most people have a tendency to want to demonstrate that they can act, they can emote.

You really try to work the character out and spend time in the headspace of the character. That's what I did.

If you're constantly stepping outside of the character and judging them, you'll never really be able to fully engage because you'll always be slightly cynical.