I never achieved my first goal in the National Actors Theatre, which is to have a permanent Acting Company
Broadway remains the closest thing we have to a national theatre, the place where the greatest number of people can potentially see new work. For an American playwright to say it doesn't matter is simply to capitulate to the current situation.
I'm an old-fashioned theatre major at heart.
I always wanted to see what America was like. I had that curiosity in my 20s when I was working in the theatre here [ in London]... there was the mystery of LA and I wondered what happened over there. I wanted to go and check it out and I'm pleased that I have.
It's all good fun - television and movies and so on - but the good thing in theatre is there's nothing and no one between you and the audience so you can do what you want really.
More young people need to come to the theatre in general.
The people on the business side in the music business are kind of different from the theatre business. I think it's partly because there are different pressures on the industries.
Unease is not an emotion I get often in the theatre, and I like it.
Theatre critics have no special access to the truth. And there should be no objective truth to art.
I love to act, so the only way I could act was through community theatre and they would just do musicals. My musical upbringing was show-tunes and it sucks and I have been trying to get away from it ever since.
The thing is, is that I hate theatre, but it was how I learnt to sing.
The noblest Digladiation is in the Theatre of ourselves.
An actor is supposed to emulate life. Instead, alas, many are imitating other actors. You don't fashion your knowledge of theatre or your approach to a role on the basis of what other actors have done. This kind of thinking is a great danger, especially in dealing with TV producers who frequently say things like, 'This is a Sean Connery type.'
I think it's very valuable as an actor to throw yourself back into having that direct connection with an audience on-stage and work that muscle. It is a very different type of work and equally fascinating. I mean, I've very much in love with filmmaking because I really love the way you can tell stories with a camera and how music and everything contributes to the story in a very direct way. But I also think it's very valuable to come back to theatre, so if the right script came along I would love to come back to London and do some more.
Why did I write? Because I found life unsatisfactory.
To be honest, I am not theatre-trained and though I am confident in my skill set, to do theatre requires a better-tuned set of muscles and I sometimes defer to actors who are better trained. But at the times I do want a shot, I'll go for it, especially if the piece speaks to me and the opportunity comes up. The immediate response from a theatre audience is so thrilling, affirming, and soul-feeding; to know how you've affected an audience at curtain can be ego-blowing, both good and bad.
I think the people who probably have it the best are the people on cable like on Entourage, the Sopranos, etc. who have 13 episodes per season and breaks to do films and theatre. I think thats the most ideal life.
I did theatre all my life and then went into the film world. I then kind of segued into TV land, which is a different experience.
Theatre is the principal job of an actor. An actor's job is to tell a story to someone in a room. TV and film can be great and I really love doing it, but it is a different way of telling a story.
I quite enjoy fame, especially when you go to conventions in America where they treat you like a god with stretch limos and the whole fame thing, but then when you come back to Britain, you end up changing in a toilet in a theatre off West End and that's really good, because that is what it's about.
As far as I'm concerned, Cate Blanchett is a goddess, but she's really down to earth. She's got all those Oscars, she's made all those amazing films and she could spend her whole life doing that, but what does she also do? She gives birth to three boys and creates her own theatre in Sydney.
As far as I'm concerned, an audience is an audience. Whether it's an audience in Hull or the National Theatre, that's who you play to. It's not money - it's good to get some, but that's not why I do it. You do it because you have to, to tell a story.
Coming from the theatre I have played some fabulous characters where I get to wear gowns and I get to be a princess or someone from the 1920s, or I get to wear showgirl costumes. I'm used to wearing a wardrobe that changes how I feel.
You don't choose the theatre; The theatre choses you
I like to use my hands. When I was in theatre in college, that was one of my biggest notes: 'You use your hands too much.
