I was always attracted to the type of cinema hero as an adolescent growing up in Ireland. Robert Mitchum springs to mind. Later on, it was Steve McQueen to a certain extent and Charles Bronson. They're these types of grizzled characters who had one foot on the side of law and order and the other foot in the bad guy's camp.

I don't think for this generation, but for my generation and my father's generation, men had difficulty in accessing emotion and then being able to talk about it.

I think I survived by running away some. Running away to work.

I certainly notice the vitality in Belfast, which wasn't there in the Seventies. There was a war going on then. Now there are cranes everywhere. There really is a sense of renewal and hope.

I've had an unbelievable life. I've been very lucky. You do create your own luck too, you know? I never forget where I'm from. Whenever I pass a building site or see somebody digging a ditch, I always think, 'That's real work.'

But, you know, there's still an argument, there's still ten states that outlaw premarital sex, and many more states where adultery is still outlawed and a crime.

I don't think that I am a sex symbol, although it's very flattering.