It was quite a European war until 1917, when the Americans joined up. They don't have the same sense of the loss of innocence and the cataclysmic loss of life. A whole generation was wiped out.

If you play it straight it's funny - the best comedy is always played straight down the middle. The adjustment is understanding from the screenplay that a moment is hilarious.

Once you've seen certain things, the moral compunction drives you to act.

I am an optimist... I choose to be. There is a lot of darkness in our world, there is a lot of pain and you can choose to see that or you can choose to see the joy. If you try to respond positively to the world, you will spend your time better.

The character, as written on the page, is just a blueprint for a human being.

I am desperate to do a comedy now.

Somehow the past is a safe place to explore our collective cultural neuroses.