I did four or five years in telly, and by the end of it was drained. I was a bit sick of myself. I didn't feel like an actor anymore. That sounds silly, but when you're doing a play you're using different muscles, and it blew all the cobwebs away.

I was quite a shy child. I would get terribly nervous and throw up before my birthday party. And then I would be fine. I feel the same now. I get nervous, then it's fine.

I can't throw books away. My wife is always telling me to get rid of some.

Some British actors are snobby about telly, and I don't understand that.

Actors have to remind people that they can do different things, not just the same style of one role.

No one will guide you in the right direction, in the end you have to learn for yourself. You have to grow up yourself.

Nobody's really unsympathetic, I think. People do good and bad things. If a character's totally unsympathetic, they're not real and I'm not interested. Even the real monsters have to have a spark of something you can relate to.