When I went to LA I was almost 30, I'd been nominated for two Tony awards, and on the New York theatre scene I was pretty well known. I went out to LA to meet with casting people, and I remember walking into one meeting and saying: "Hey, how are you? I'm Patrick..." And they said: "I'm so sorry! I thought you were British!" When I asked why, she replied: "Because you're 30 and I've never heard of you!"

You have to know what you're shooting. Don't just make your movie in the editing room and just get everything you can on the day.

You never want to judge your character.

Mike Nicholls saw me in the musical of The Full Monty and brought me in to audition for Angels in America for HBO. And that opened a lot of doors because you could go to LA and say: "Well, I'm starring opposite Al Pacino and Meryl Streep..."

When you're younger you don't care so much, but as you get older you have a family and stuff like that. But I've always kept my foot in theatre and I've kept my foot in independent film, so I'm really happy going back and forth. So, if I can't find the meaty roles in studio films, then I'll go back and dig up a little independent where I can flex my muscles a little bit.

Somebody can paint with a fine brush like Monet and do millions of little dots or somebody can splatter it up there like Kandinsky or Jackson Pollock and go "Yep, that's art." That's okay.

The blessing and the curse of not having a huge hit... you can go in and out of roles and some people know who you are and some people don't. I'd love for one of these movies to be super successful because then at least you're presented with more opportunities.