Actor

Acting touches nerves you have absolutely no control over.

Originally, theater was my life. It was what I assumed I'd spend my working life doing - if I was lucky. Then along came movies.

I approach every part I'm asked to do and decide to do from exactly the same angle: who is this person, what does he want, how does he attempt to get it, and what happens to him when he doesn't get it, or if he does?

Any actor who judges his character is a fool - for every role you play you've got to absorb that character's motives and justifications.

My parents certainly didn't have anything to do with the theater. I'm some kind of accident.

Actors are agents of change. A film, a piece of theater, a piece of music, or a book can make a difference. It can change the world.

I suppose with any good writing and interesting characters, you can have that awfully overused word: a journey.

You try to find things that are challenging and interesting and hopefully it will be the same to the audience.

Actors are actually very supportive of each other.

Unless we tell stories about ourselves, which is all that theater is, we're in deep trouble.

I can only see my limitations. That's just who I am.

Every so often you read a play and a character just speaks to you - almost seems to speak through you, in fact.

I'm always aware of the camera and it feels like that's the audience.

Somebody with Debbie Reynolds' features doesn't get cast as the Wicked Witch.

On the screen were some flashback shots of Daniel, Emma and Rupert from ten years ago. They were 12. I have also recently returned from New York, and while I was there, I saw Daniel singing and dancing (brilliantly) on Broadway. A lifetime seems to have passed in minutes.

I think there should be laughs in everything. Sometimes, it's a slammed door, a pie in the face or just a recognition of our frailties.

I mean, language fascinates me anyway, and different words have different energies and you can change the whole drive of a sentence.

Los Angeles is not a town full of airheads. There's a great deal of wonderful energy there. They say 'yes' to things; not like the endless 'nos' and 'hrrumphs' you get in England!

The more we're governed by idiots and have no control over our destinies, the more we need to tell stories to each other about who we are, why we are, where we come from, and what might be possible. Or, what's impossible? What's a fantasy?

Each character I play has different dimensions. I'm not interested in words that pull them together.