It's a nightmare to sit and watch a film that I'm in. There's a horrible inescapability to it.
If people want to know who I am, it is all in the work.
Why don't I like you?" "Because you think I'm an asshole, and I'm not really, I'm just British and, well, you're not.
My definition of palatable might be slightly different from yours.
The audience should feel like voyeurs. Their response is absolutely crucial.
Acting is about giving something away, handing yourself over to whatever role you are asked to play. I'm not hiding or escaping or seeking anonymity. I reserve the right not to have a rubber stamp on my forehead saying this is who I am. Because who I am gets in the way of people looking innocently at the parts I play.
I'm a lot less serious than people think.
So you can't judge the character you're playing ever.
I knew with Snape I was working as a double agent, as it turns out, and a very good one at that.
My idea of a real treat is Magic Mountain without standing in line.
I was 7, and I remember being given a part in a play and thinking, This is exciting.
There's, like, marks next to an actor's name or something, and boy does that go up and down! Somewhere in there, which always causes my mate Miss Ruby Wax great hilarity, I was offered a biopic of Frank Sinatra. Even I knew that was a bad idea! They'll throw anything at you at certain times. So, you know, to thine own self be true.
A wounding tongue. I'm working on it. Perhaps its the Celt in me.
Snow Cake is a lovely film. Really proud of that. We shot it in 21 days. I thought Sigourney was amazing in it. And very, very accurate. I think there was some element that thought she had pushed it too far. But not at all when you do the amount of homework she had done and spent the amount of time she did with adult autistics. She was right on the money. And I think Marc Evans is a terrific director. He's a sweet, open, honest man and a really good director of actors.
It is an ancient need to be told stories. But the story needs a great storyteller. Thanks for all of it, Jo.
What is it about actors? God knows I get bored with actors talking about themselves.
When I get off the plane in England I always feel about two inches shorter.
I do feel more myself in America. I can regress there, and they have roller-coaster parks.
Certainly as actors, and maybe as directors, you've got to hang on to something childlike. You've got to know what play is. I haven't worked with Mike Leigh, but I know him very well and there's something open in his eyes about what's in front of him. And the same is true of Alfonso in a Mexican, mad way. There's an enthusiastic response to something. Neil Jordan, the same, when he gets excited . You just want to know there's a human being in there.
I've learned, having been on a lot of sets, the good news is that by definition you are surrounded by experts. They get fired if they're not - unlike in the theatre!
One longs for a director with a sense of imagination.
I am the character you are not supposed to like.
The first time that I came to New York to work properly was the mid-'80s, but I was doing eight shows a week. You have no life. Going to a punk rock club - or whatever the music was at that time - would not have been on my agenda.
I was a student in London in the '70s, so CBGB really wasn't on my radar at all. Obviously, I was aware of the emergence of the Police in England and as an art student, I was very aware of David Byrne, but I suppose my musical taste at that time certainly didn't stretch towards the Dead Boys or the Ramones.
Parts win prizes, not actors.
