After graduation, I was floundering in L.A., doing stand-up comedy and working in a shoe store in the Valley.

A couple of clues came my way of what I might be getting myself into when I sat down with a number of actors who had played Richard III in the past. And I was hoping of course, that one of them or all of them were gonna give me the magic key, the secret way in to play Richard III but none of them did that.But every one of them did say the following, "Be careful."

I dont play villainy. I wouldnt even know how to play it.

If it were not for people who stepped forward and gave me opportunities at a time when I had not proved myself at all, believe me, I would not have a career.

I've done big studio films and the big studio films I've done, I've tried to do the interesting ones and the ones where I could live with myself in the morning.

Theatre is organic, film is not. Theatre you come every day and you work with a group of people and you're are all up for it and you all get to do the whole thing every night, be it two hours or three hours. In film you work in two or three minute bits and it's never in chronological order and then someone takes that away and makes it look like it all happened, or that you gave that performance.

Its extremely dangerous to compare anyone else to Shakespeare.