'Hamlet' is one of the most dangerous things ever set down on paper. All the big, unknowable questions like what it is to be a human being; the difference between sanity and insanity; the meaning of life and death; what's real and not real. All these subjects can literally drive you mad.
Michael Sheen
I'm not a Tony Blair impersonator.
My tragedy is that all I want is a dog, and yet I have been cursed with cats all my life.
My own daughter is a big fan of the 'Twilight' stories, the books.
As a general thing, I've always been drawn to characters who appear to be one thing on the surface, but are actually something else underneath.
I think a good story's a good story and a good character's a good character.
My dad is a Jack Nicholson lookalike and a frustrated performer, my mother's into reading and poetry. I suppose the thing I owe them most is my confidence.
I live a very Kenneth Williams-like existence.
I am very impatient.
For a culture that has such a problem with death, we seem to deal with it in a quite bizarre way. We see people shot, killed and blown up, and we find it funny and sexy and all those things. But, the reality of it is that every day people die, and people are really sad and they grieve and they go through a really difficult process with it.
I've always had an eye for what looks good on a man. But I've not always found it easy to find clothes that look good on me.
I'd love to go back to Europe in the '20s and '30s, for the beginning of the Psychoanalytic Movement, and Freud and Jung, and all that was going on with discoveries in quantum physics. The whole nature of reality was changing and being challenged.
The secret to acting is don't act. Be you, with add-ons.
When I was at drama school, I wanted to change the world, and thought I had some great wisdom to impart to people about humanity. Now that I'm older, I know enough to realise that I know nothing at all.
If someone has an ability to impress an audience there's a tendency to be tempted into doing just that.
A lot of children are interested in fairies, especially young girls, and Tinker Bell is the ueber-fairy. She's the pin-up girl of fairies. She's the ultimate fairy, but she's also got a mischievous spirit and she's very strong-willed. I think a lot of youngsters recognize themselves in Tinker Bell.
I have a daughter, and fairies meant a lot to her growing up.
I cry when I feel moved by incredible generosity or a connection to someone. We spend so much of our lives being separated. It's the relief of connection that produces the tears.
I think when you work on a Woody Allen film the actors become a real company, probably more than on any other film.
I think the best acting is when you allow yourself to be kind of vulnerable in the moment.
I've never met anyone normal.
If you can define what God is, I can tell you whether I believe in it.
The first thing, when I read the script, is that I need to care about what happens and feel compelled by the story and engaged by the characters. It needs to resonate with me, even if what the characters are going through is not something that I have experienced in my life. I have to feel like it has some sort of meaning to me.
I'm a big fan of vampire movies generally and that sort of tradition of characters.
In some ways any film that you do has an artificiality about it. Even when you're doing the most kitchen-sinky, gritty, realistic scene you've still got 50 people standing around watching you with cameras and lights and things.
There are times in my career where I can see it would be helped by having a bit more of a profile, but it's not like I refuse to do interviews, no, not at all.
I'm always aware that there are, broadly speaking, two different ways to act: there is acting, and then there's being, and I'm always more interested in that.
I would never use prosthetics. I don't like sticking things on. I don't really like wearing wigs, either.
My rule of thumb is that I want to do things I'd like to go and see myself.
A lot of the times when I've auditioned for parts in America, the answer is, 'Sorry, we need a bigger name.'
I think I'm becoming more relaxed in front of a camera. I suppose I'll always feel slightly more at home on stage. It's more of an actor's medium. You are your own editor, nobody else is choosing what is being seen of you.
A parent can seem very kind and gentle, but as any child knows, as soon as that parent gets stressed, they can suddenly turn and get a bit angry.
Americans are much more open than people in Britain.
Acting itself is quite scary. Some people say that actors are show-offs, very egotistical and all that kind of stuff, but it is quite scary.
My taste in watching things runs from dramas and low-budget films to high-end fantasy/science fiction.
Sometimes you see things in a script, and it doesn't necessarily mean the director sees the same things. And if you think you're going to be making a different film, then that's not gonna work.
My chief gifts are - naturally good at all sports with a raw talent for pretty much everything, which if nurtured could develop into improper talent.
I always say if I'm not good at something it's just because I've not had time to focus on it... it's just uncrafted, like a slab of rock that contains the statue of David within it.
I suppose I'm something of an eccentric dresser.
I can be a lazy dresser.
I try not to pay any attention to clothes fascism and I'd rather be thought of as someone who has his own sense of style.
I was obsessed with football when I was growing up.
Although my family - parents and sister - all work in the personnel management business, their real passion is performing, amateur operatic societies and so on.
It's weird that I've ended up playing so many real live people, because I was never any good at impersonations at school.
I enjoy doing things that involve research because it's part of what I enjoy about acting.
Stories have always been the things that entertain me and make me feel happy and sad and move me and give me the experience of being able to live many lives in one lifetime. It's the best thing about being alive.
I don't want to do something that I've done before; I can't see the point of it.
I perceive and relate to the world through where I grew up; that's part of me. It's what I judge everything else against.
I am prone to get carried away thinking about creative projects.
I'm not a Christian.
