Sometimes the director will want you to write about the character, sometimes he'll want you to live in the location that the character is from or something like that, but I don't usually make a lot of notes or anything like that.

I like my characters to be ones I think about long after I've finished reading the script.

I did find New Zealand similar to Ireland. The people, obviously. I found that, ironically, although these two countries were very far away from each other, their humor was so similar and their outlook on things was quite similar as well.

If you don't have eyebrows, you don't really have a face.

I'm a huge Wes Anderson fan. I literally love every single film. He hasn't made a bad film; I've seen every single one. They've all been brilliant, from 'Bottle Rocket' up to 'Moonrise Kingdom,' they've all been wonderful.

I'm very much for strengthening our industry at home. It's great now there's a lot of work happening but I think with Irish film in particular, the views were starting to get a little stereotypical and we were pigeonholing ourselves a little bit. We needed to get out of that.

I think when you get on with the actors that you're working with, even if you do have really intimate scenes, as long as you get on well, and have a bit of a laugh while doing it, then it's fine.