I certainly have been guilty of trying to sweep things under the carpet.

I certainly have been guilty of trying to sweep things under the carpet.

I think that a lot of exciting elements are finding a place where a film is happily, truly about something.

Hamlet and Victor Frankenstein are each obsessed with death. Hamlet's whole story is a philosophical preparation for death; Victor's is an intellectual refusal to accept it.

I feel more Irish than English. I feel freer than British, more visceral, with a love of language. Shot through with fire in some way. That's why I resist being appropriated as the current repository of Shakespeare on the planet. That would mean I'm part of the English cultural elite, and I am utterly ill-fitted to be.

It doesn't mean old or younger. I've learned a lot from people much younger than me as well as people much older than me. So I think it's about honesty and generosity.

One of the things that makes Hamlet unique among Shakespeare's characters is his courage to face up to the darker elements of his personality.