I couldnt imagine something asking as much of me as House Of Cards. Its a great warm-up for coming back to the screen.

It is not about whether you are an executive, a studio or a network. If you have a story or an idea you can build a following for it.

What I do is interpret, not create. I may add elements and do something different. That is what is so incredible about theatre. Why do we love it that there are nine Hamletsor six King Lears over two years? We love to watch a different actor attack the same material.

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.

I'm aware that, from the outside, this looks like I've got quite an ego.

I never doubted at all. If you ever doubt then you are in trouble. I never thought: 'I should do this or that in case I don't make it.' I never had a back-up plan.

The characters created cannot just be a mouthpiece for the writer. When you look at a piece of writing, and it's genuine and it doesn't feel like every character is just a mouthpiece for the writer, but that they've been created in such a way that they're expressing an idea that a writer wants to get across, that's when a story succeeds.