I went being unemployed for three years to being the lead in a British feature in the days when we only made two a year, 1990. It was ridiculous really.
It can be very difficult to trace your birth parents.
I've never been up with the times, always been slightly out of step.
Many times I've sat with a camera and another actor and seen all their fears and insecurities and struggles. You want to support them and help them as much as you can.
I think the themes of belonging and parentage and love are obviously universal.
Lots of middle class people are running around pretending to be Cockney.
I heard the various terms of abuse at school and probably indulged them in the way you do as a kid.
I don't see a lot of films. I'm quite choosy, but there's certain films that stick out.
Any horror element is as much psychological as special effects.
I care more about telly because it made me an actor and there's a much more immediate response to TV. You can address the political or cultural fabric of your country.
The film is about Joe discovering who his mother and father are and his relationship with them, and the identity crisis he goes through once he finds out who his parents are.
Television, although It's in steep decline, still occasionally gives voices to people who don't have voices.
Rather than disliking theatre, I've expressed a preference for television because it tends to deal in its small way much more with issues and is able to reach a broader church of people than theatre.
Theatre is expensive to go to. I certainly felt when I was growing up that theatre wasn't for us. Theatre still has that stigma to it. A lot of people feel intimidated and underrepresented in theatre.
What goes down on film is different to what you see with the naked eye.
Thank you to everybody who voted for me, and to the British public for their encouragement over the last 17 years
I used my instincts. It's very easy to imagine how you'd feel, actually. I just had to tell the narrative.
