What is interesting, as well, is how much power homicide detectives have and how much respect. They are kind of rock stars, especially in New York. There are not that many of them.

What made me want to be an actor? Ah, I'm not really sure, to be honest. I was one of those little kids who did it around school, and then I got to university and made lots of bad plays and short films, and then midway through that, it suddenly dawned on me that this might be a satisfying way to earn a living, if that was at all feasible.

I find confidence seductive. Confidence, to me, is being happy in your own identity and not being influenced by others. I find that quite seductive because I'm a 50-50 person: in some ways I'm confident, and in some ways I'm quiet, reclusive. [I] like someone who can shake me out of that and approach me.

I know there's Brooklyn and all the boroughs, but Manhattan specifically is so condensed that the energy is very vibrant. Everywhere you look there is something happening.

I was in the school plays, I did a lot of music. I carried on through university for short films and loads of plays.

People say that New Yorkers aren't friendly, but I think they're more friendly than Londoners. Here there is a front-footed nature of Americans. You can go out on a night out and meet 10 random people and stay in touch with them, whereas that's not going to happen in the same way in London.

I don't think I believe in ghosts, per se. But, my nearest experience was when I went on a weekend away and was in a bar in England, years ago, with an ex-girlfriend. I heard this scratching. I was about to go to bed and I was thinking, 'It's an old ghost.' I could hear this noise, but I couldn't work out where it was coming from.