Coming eyeball to eyeball with a hummingbird on my terrace is as exciting to me as any celebrity Ive met as a result of Downton Abbey.

I guess that is my favorite thing - to make people laugh and also to maybe engage them emotionally and touch them somehow in telling the story.

As an actor, you never know where the works going to come, so you have to be flexible about it.

I can do basics, but I'm not a proper cook. I can do a roast. I can stick a chicken in the oven with vegetables.

Ive not cooked Christmas dinner since 1982.

I was painfully shy as a child.

I always admire people who have passion.