One of the things that I was interested in about Moriarty was - he's so manipulative that he doesn't need to commit violence himself or kill people - he can get everyone to do what he needs to do. And sometimes they don't even know that they are being manipulated by him.

I've auditioned for normal characters. But I never get cast.

I thought if I went somewhere where I didn't know anybody and they didn't know me I could start all over again.

I never lost an argument and my parents assumed I would be a lawyer. They cast me in that role.

In the old patrician world there was a custom once a week you had to eat a meal with your slaves and get to know them as people.

I audition for stuff all the time, and what's weird about it is that one's success rate at auditioning doesn't really change. It's sort of at the same ratio of stuff you audition for to things you land.

When preparing for a role, a month is a luxury. Sometimes you've maybe got two weeks before you start on something. So you have to learn how to do it quickly. And the longer you have a role, that it lives in your imagination, the more you're going to be able to contribute when you get on set. Because it's really about your subconscious having time to sit with the part, so you're out doing something and then something occurs to you, you know?