Two years ago, I shot 'Pillars of the Earth' in Budapest - it was a big part, but I had a lot of time to sit around and visit cafes.
On so many levels, acting in film and TV is so much the sum of its parts, and somewhere in there, there's an alchemical thing that makes something happen or not - that makes something connect or not. Now, of course you want to make work that people see, but the enjoyment I get out of acting is playing characters.
If your dream is to tell stories, interesting stories, play interesting people, that's the bottom line. The people that I play have to be extraordinary.
I come home from trying to pretend to know about astronomy and physics all day and turn on 'The Real Housewives'.
I've been a closet lover of faux-reality TV since 'The Hills'. It's bad.
Filming is about continuing to be alert and to think, and I find it quite exhausting.
There's something scary about acting always, because basically you do all this work in a vacuum, and then suddenly there's a lot of money spent making a film, and there's suddenly a camera here, going, 'Right? What are you gonna do?'
There's been a huge history of cisgender success on the back of trans stories, which is something I'm deeply aware of. My take on it, I suppose, was that I do think actors should be able to play anything.
Going to the Oscars is always the most sensory overload and a huge amount of fun.
I find in film acting that however many years you have done it for, you can feel totally relaxed and at ease with the people around you, absolutely wonderful, then roll camera and a little part of you goes, 'Ugh'. It is learning how to manage that.
The percentage of actors employed is pretty small, and if you're lucky enough to have a good run at it, you do have a sense of responsibility.
I'm by nature someone that quite likes to understand how things are working, likes some sense of structure, and I've fallen into the worst possible trade for that.
Actors are actors, and there should be a complete fluidity for anyone to play anything.
That's the reality of my life - I do normal things and then get to go to film festivals and wear borrowed clothes and turn up at premieres and talk about things I am passionate about. But then you click back to normality and your family and friends.
For 'The Theory of Everything,' I was quite low down on a list of actors for the role, and I got the opportunity as a consequence of people saying no to it. So I have been very, very lucky.
There is a certain amount of commerce in the film industry in as much as you have value, and for a moment, your value goes up, then it all disappears again.
I feel like J. K. Rowling's world is one that is owned by everyone in some ways. People have grown up with it and have such a sense of that universe that there's something kind of wonderful seeing everyone get involved.
What is important is for me to do my best work on camera. The camera is inches away from you and sees every micromovement of every muscle of your eye. And if you're not relaxed, the camera sees it.
As someone who gets nervous in silences, I spill words rather than really think.
If you are playing someone living, it is a different type of judgment. However much work you do, it is not a documentary. There will be things you can't get right, and ultimately, you have to take a leap because - you weren't there.
