I once met a man who was a billionaire, and I said to him: 'Are you a self-made man?' - and he turned around and said: 'No man is self-made;' and certainly, if you want to make films or get into television or even theatre, the amount of help that you need, the amount of people who need to give you a helping hand is extraordinary.
Christian McKay
Originally I studied as a musician, a classical pianist. That was my career before I took up acting in my late 20s.
I always wanted to be an independent maverick, writing plays and putting them on myself.
Do I have any potential as an actor? I don't know. I'm still wondering. But acting has kind of taken over.
I'm very happy in my 18th century worker's cottage in Kent and playing my music for the dog-walkers paused outside.
Like so many people, I only remembered Orson Welles as this huge, fat, bearded figure selling wine in TV commercials. So whenever anyone said I looked like Orson Welles I said that I wasn't that fat, and I would get on a diet, quickly.
It's more difficult playing a real-life person than a fictional character - you can go easy on yourself with a fictional character.
I was at the Royal Shakespeare Company, where I thought, in my naivete, I'd stay for the rest of my career. I'd thought I'd work up through the ranks and go from spear carrier - or in my case, the eunuch, which was several rungs below the spear carrier - to King Lear.
I personally think 'Chimes of Midnight' is a much better film than 'Citizen Kane.'
I want to record 'Goyescas' by Granados, which has been a great love of mine since I was a teenager.
One of my earliest memories is of bashing the keyboard with my hands, my chubby little baby hands, and I remember the sound hitting my face. It became my toy.
I was always jealous of my violinist friends and cellist friends who traveled with their instruments.
People say to me now, 'Oh, you've given up the piano.' How can you? Music is a virus.
Film is limitless, but some stage presentations on film can look too theatrical.
Some actors play themselves, don't they?
Now I have an agent, a manager, a lawyer, a publicist, all the king's horses and all the king's men.
I hope I have quite a few great roles to come.
