In troubled times the last thing you want to do is to stick your money into a film. It's such a gamble.

I've always believed that as an actor anything you're asked to do is within you. You just have to try and find it.

Early days, I was a bit racked , particularly when I did Hitler, for CBS . That was hellish. That stayed with me for quite a long time.

The darker the character, the more interesting.

People in Scotland appreciate homegrown talent, but it's getting harder and harder to get films made in Britain.

A lot of the characters I play have problems, they are marginalised, they have serious psychological problems, problems with relationships, with childhood. These are big subjects, big subjects. You can't balk at work like that. As an actor, that's as good as it gets.

So many of my friends, old friends I haven't seen in years, made their way out there and got lost, then found their way back. That seems believable to me.