How did I end up in films with people like Keira Knightley... all these beautiful leading ladies and me - it's kind of shocking.

My maternal grandma was a tough, tough lady and a stern woman, who lost her husband young and raised six kids by herself. She lived in a mining community in Upstate New York and ran a boarding house for miners. She took care of an entire family and miners who lived in the house as well.

I don't feel that I have to control every aspect of things that I appear in. You learn a lot performing someone else's writing.

Do I want to be feared or loved? That's a good question. I want both. I want people to be afraid of how much they love me.

I've thought a lot about success, because it's very strange to me that I've been successful.

Well, on a personal level, I would never want to take on a character who didn’t have some redeemable qualities. Even the worst of people, such as Michael Scott in The Office [Carell’s character in the US version of the Ricky Gervais sitcom], have some decent human qualities that you can latch onto.

I think in most relationships that have problems, there's fault on both sides. And in order for it to work, there has to be some common ground that's shared. And it's not just one person making amends.