As a child, I was fascinated by the stories of Dickens acting out everything in front of the mirror as he wrote it down. Later, when you approach his work as an actor, you notice how sayable the dialogue is.
Part of George R.R. Martin's brilliant storytelling is taking the carpet out from under your feet.
Adult fantasy gets a bad name. You think of Xena - Warrior Princess. If you don't do it expensively, it becomes tacky and you end up just appealing to 45-year-old single men.
I didn't want to be stuck in Dickens period dramas because then I would never know if I was any good.
I believe your thoughts are your thoughts, but are you a human being in front of the camera, or an actor? They are two different things.
I consider myself straight, but if I met a guy tomorrow and fell in love with him, would I be brave enough to accept that without having to change the way I look at myself?
If you're going to be related to someone it might as well be Dickens.
I just don't think any job is worth sacrificing your private life for.
My parents are Polish. I don't know anything about Italian-ness.
It's lovely to have a part that requires you to learn something that's also interesting.
There is a whole bunch of great British actors of my age who aren't film stars or theatre actors; they're very much both.
If I'm honest, the reason I got into acting is not the reason I'm still doing it, and if I'm still doing it in ten years' time, I'm sure I'll find something else.
My parents both work in publishing, and I was a bright, academic kind of kid, and I read a lot of books, and when you read a lot, I guess the muscle that gets exercised is where you can hear the voices in your head. You can turn words into pictures and into sounds and into colours and smells.
Peter Mullan is the least method actor around.
The interesting thing is, when you play a real-life character or someone based in a book, you always come up against people's preconceptions of what they have in their heads.
It's always crude to link Dickens back to the blacking factory where he was sent to work aged 12 when his father was imprisoned in Marshalsea Prison for bad debt, but it was obviously a huge part of him.
I went to prep school, Eton and Oxford. When people hear that, they think they know you, and you think: 'No, you don't.'
I love my little flat in Spitalfields. Lots of actors live out of a suitcase, so it's nice to have a base to come back to.
I suppose the things you remember about someone who has died are the funny moments. Those are the ones that stand out.
The less friendly your relationship is on camera, the more useful it is to be friends with them off camera.
