You'd never play Hamlet if you started worrying about who's played it before you.

It must be odd, being recognisable. I would hate to lose that anonymity. It happened for a while with 'Spooks.' No one notices me now.

As much as I long for a sort of security and consistency sometimes, I do enjoy sort of being busted around. I really don't know what's happening sometimes next week, let alone this year.

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.

People like to think that actors are terribly worried about ghosts of other actors in the parts they play. But you just have to get on with it.

I try to be fussy about the parts I play. I think that's quite prudent, it means you're stretching different muscles, and you're scaring yourself by doing something which is out of your comfort zone.

I wouldn't want to leave it so long before doing a play again, I get very stolid and sluggish if I do too much telly.