The darker the character, the more interesting.
Every actor I think has got their own number of takes that they like, you know. Some actors like to go all day, you know on the one scene and some actors want to take two takes. I personally like four.
It depends who the director is you know, I mean Ken Loach for instance. I've done up to 32 takes with him.
I just don't like the whole Hollywood thing.
Hunger's a great spur.
It took a long time for me to accept I was an actor, a professional actor, and that, actually, I make a living out of this.
I love sci-fi because it leads in the imagination, and I always say it has the most intelligent fans in the world.
I'd totally be attracted to a geek girl!
In the late '70s, maybe just before I started, there was still an attitude that if you did film you didn't do TV and vice versa, but that's gone now.
People in Scotland appreciate homegrown talent, but it's getting harder and harder to get films made in Britain.
Anyone who knows anything about me knows that I am a very patriotic guy, in terms of my Scottishness and my roots.
A lot of my work is with children and there's a reason for that, because they really level you.
Anyone that knows me knows what I'm about, and I'm very much a British actor, a European actor.
I loved cinema while growing up and, for the longest time, wanted to be a director.
A lot of Scots have settled in Canada over the years and it's a very easy place for Scots - they understand us, we understand them.
I like to be working and moving - the worst thing you can do to me is stick me in a room all day while you're lighting a shot. That just kills me.
I never rehearse. Never! I think it's a waste of time.
I'd love to do a Columbo-type detective character in a series.
Each performance and each film is what it is. It's right and belongs within that moment. You look at it and try to make it fit your particular part of your character and your particular film.
I think I have a natural, if I can say that, got a kind of natural ability in comedy.
