I stopped asking a long time ago, "why would you want me to play that?" I'm an actor. That's what I do.

'The Elephant Man' was hugely enjoyable to do. I thought the one stage, when Chris Tucker did the first makeup and it took 12 hours, I thought they'd actually found a way for me not to enjoy filming.

Some directors involve waiting, and if you want to work with that particular director you're going to have to hang around.

I am really the victim of other people's imagination.

Obviously, the arrogance of my own nature in regards to other people's work would suggest that I think I'm talented.

You can see areas where maybe you got a bit lazy, perhaps, or you see when you were really on form. I think an actor is very like a sportsman in that respect. You have periods where you're in terrific form.

Also the wonderful thing about film, you can see light at the end of the tunnel. You did realize that it is going to come to an end at some stage.