One of the reasons a lot of actors go into the business is that for a short period of time, you get to be other people who you can only fantasize about being, by and large.

I like doing things that are very wildly different. I find that the meat and vegetables of being an actor is doing things that are completely different, all the time.

I like television that grabs you by your throat.

You need to be disciplined and you need to try to occupy a zone of acting that is always quite scary because you don't think you're doing anything.

My life is really precious. I don't want to spend it watching ambient TV that just drifts through you. I've got better things to do.

One of the things that I discovered in my research is that some serial killers build an ultimate reality around themselves that they believe in, 100%.

We start off wearing frilly shirts and britches and being good guys and the heroes. And then as time goes on, every English actor ends up playing bad guys. That's what we do.