I would find myself getting deeply distressed if I lived in hindsight all the time.
Andrew Lincoln
In western culture, we have ignored death. We're running the other way - everything is about life and youth. So, there's something resonant about walking around with our own death masks. Zombies are the visible embodiment of death staring at us with our own faces.
If you love a character that gets killed, it's agony.
I don't really have any regrets because if I choose not to do something there is usually a very good reason. Once I've made the decision I don't view it as a missed opportunity, just a different path.
There is nothing like mortal fear to galvanize a friendship.
Atlanta is an incredibly cool city.
I'm much more indecisive and a people-pleaser than someone who's willing to step into the firing line.
I love science and that time in history when science and the humanities were the same thing.
My parents saw their job of parenting as their most important role in life, and I aim to aspire to that.
I'm like a magpie. I use lots of different things to build a character.
Even though I'm an actor, I'm a very bad liar.
I spend my working life pretending to be someone else.
I've always wanted to work in America because of those brilliant east-coast political movies of the '70s and '80s - great scripts, wonderful performances, gritty urban parable.
My No. 1 responsibility when I'm not slaying zombies is being a parent.
Changing diapers is one of the most leveling things that has ever happened to me.
That's what I always hoped for when I became an actor - that you would do something that people can escape to, find identification with and excitement in and be able to talk about it in bars, restaurants, and workplaces.
Guilt is an emotion that is never very far away from Rick Grimes. He's a man that shoulders the responsibility, and it's one of the forces that keeps pushing him on.
You never think about your own mortality. At least not until your back gives way when you're 40.
When I see a friend play Hamlet or see an inspirational performance, I absolutely get excited by the idea of changing things up.
When I was at drama school I wanted to do classical theatre. It just so happened that I did a film when I came out and I moved that way.
I don't feel that fear is a good incentive on a film set.
Just to have the opportunity to play an American in America is a dream come true for me.
I think my wife has always been aware, whatever country we have been in, of my dramatic leading man status; a little too dramatic she would probably say.
I like to think that I've got determination, and I'm fiercely protective of the people I love.
The whole vanity aspect of building up different muscles - I have no interest.
When you are an actor every day kind of morphs into one as there is no set structure to my job.
I'm not going to pretend I'm some saint, because I'm not.
I just do my day job and go home and plant trees.
I always want to go to the movies and watch something and be moved by something or feel things.
People are always invading your personal space on set, especially on 'The Walking Dead.'
History turns me on. I was terrible at it at in school, but as I get older, I get more and more into it.
Robert Kirkman can't bear it when I wear flip-flops. He takes pictures of my flip-flops and keeps sending them to me, like, 'What are you doing? Rick Grimes is not a flip-flop kind of guy.'
I love acting. I just love it. It's in my bones.
If a fantasy, if a story can help you feel something, I think that's really cool.
There's a whole generation in England who think I'm American, thanks to 'The Walking Dead.' It's an interesting phenomenon of being an actor longer than 25 years because you can tell what people know you from.
The thing that I love about Rick Grimes is that he pulls himself off the canvas even when he has been pummeled to the ground so many times. And either he gets up by himself - he drags himself up - or he is helped up by loved ones around him.
Guilt is never very far from Rick Grimes' shoulder. It comes with the package. He's a man who takes his responsibilities very heavily, not lightly.
Having children was a revelation - it's like going through a doorway, and everything is different forever.
I wasn't a great student. My brother is 18 months older than me, so he sort of forged the way for me at school.
I dispute the idea that we turn into our parents. These children who have come into my life are unique beings. I don't think I am teaching my children anything, frankly. I think they are teaching me.
