I was just twiddling my thumbs in London, literally not knowing what I was going to do with my life, and my agent says, 'You got an audition for 'My Fair Lady' with Bartlett Sher.'
I grind my teeth and keep my thumbs in so tight that I've dislocated them, just not to scream. Sometimes as an actor one is lucky enough to be asked to scream.
I get some of the nicest fan mail you could imagine. Also when I'm up for an award, my fans all vote online and then they'll boast to each other about how many thousands of times they've clicked my name. Their thumbs must be bleeding!
If you've got a shot at having some 30 million people give you thumbs up or thumbs down every week, you take it.
I am, it is safe to say, not a practical man. The few attempts I've made to hammer in a nail have ended in broken thumbs, burst pipes, and water spraying everywhere with the house on fire.
For me, social media is a one-way deal. It's like all the traffic goes one direction and I don't care how many people follow me, I don't care how many people like what I do, give me a thumbs up or whatever it is. I am here to share a piece of information that I've decided is relevant to our relationship as musician and audience member.
When my father retired, all he did was twiddle his thumbs. I don't want to go down that road. As long as I'm still in demand, I'll work.
Things go wrong for me all the time with technology. I'm not familiar enough with it, and I'm too old-school a brain to be able to figure it out. I'm dumb. Anything that I have to attack with my thumbs, for any period of time, makes me feel stupid. So, I try to avoid it, as much as possible, to protect my thumbs.
I remember going for a drink of water, and one old bloke shouts, 'Hey you, young lad! Your grandad is under that grass!' I just turned around to him, gave him the thumbs up and said: 'Nae problem!'
One of the things that interests me about the Regency period is how women began to stir under the thumbs of men, wanting more and bigger freedoms.
