I generally play villains once every three or four years by choice because I get offered villainous roles a lot, because of the way I look and whatever. And I tend to avoid them because I think you can end up in a cul-de-sac of your own making if you're cast in that.

I really just like acting. I'm not always aware of what is hip and what is popular and what is zeitgeist.

I was asked to be in the last two 'Harry Potter' films and I couldn't do it because I was busy filming 'Grey's Anatomy.

One of my complaints with American TV characters is that they all have a particular schtick, a hook.

I am the god of being messy - I'm trying to get better. I was terrible in my 20s. My kids are much tidier than I am, I don't know where they get it from, maybe their mother.

I suppose I am a frustrated musician so I annoy my family by playing guitar in the house. I used to be into acoustic stuff but my son Joseph is learning drums, so now I have an electric guitar and we play Metallica. We have an amp and a PA in the garage with his drum kit.

I live in LA so I worry my kids aren't that connected to Britain, I suppose I don't want them to become American kids. We try to get back three or four times a year. When they go to school they speak with a British-American accent but when they come home to us they go back to their British accent, so I can deal with that.