Sometimes all you need is a big leap of faith.
Sean Bean
I've been fortunate enough to travel the world because of my career, but the downside has been spending long spells apart from my daughters.
I like Daniel Craig. I worked with him on 'Sharpe,' one of the very early ones, maybe the second one we did - 'Sharpe's Revenge?' A long, long time ago, and he was good in that then.
When I first started shooting 'Sharpe,' back in the early 1990s, I'd kiss my two elder daughters goodbye at the end of August - Evie wasn't even born then - and I wouldn't see them again until Christmas. That was tough. They were hard times.
I left school when I was 16; then I worked for my father, who was a welder. And I was a welder for three years, you know, welder of fabrication, metal 'cause it was a big industrial town, Sheffield. It was much steel and coal and stuff like that.
It would probably surprise people to know that I'm interested in wildlife. I read a lot of poetry, too.
I miss a lot about England when I'm working away, even the slate grey skies.
At art college, I started to do music and then painting and drawing - and that would have been my ideal life, to be an artist and be paid for it, to be able to create stuff. I realized it was difficult, but I don't know if I had the application for it.
I spend a fair chunk of time in Los Angeles, and after about ten days of warmth and unbroken clear skies, you start to yearn for a bit of good old British gloom and rain!
Obviously I'm delighted I'm a grandfather, but I guess it takes a little while to digest. You start thinking, 'Oh, I'm half-way over the natural life span. So this is the last bit, and I'd better enjoy it.'
Actors like Daniel Day-Lewis, Gary Oldman, they totally immerse themselves in their parts.
I'd been trying for a while to get parts that weren't just the English bad guy, so it was quite refreshing to be playing someone who was a compassionate, decent guy.
I used to love wildlife as a kid and being outside in the garden and the woods and the field and that stuff.
It took a while to adapt to life in London, but six months into my course at RADA, I felt very at home.
I'm proud of Lord of the Rings. I think it's a once in a lifetime role, and a once in a lifetime film. It was made with so much care and passion and meticulous detail and everybody was so behind it.
There's only so long you can play the silent type standing in the background. 'GoldenEye' was good for that. I was the villain: James Bond was doing all the heavy lifting. I liked that.
Sharpe is my favorite role of all that I've played. He's a very complex character. He knows that he's a good soldier, but he will always have to fight the prejudice of aristocratic officers because of his rough working-class upbringing. On the battlefield, he's full of confidence - but off it, he is unsure, a bit shy and ill at ease.
I think there's a great deal of information you can convey with looks or silence.
I did a film called 'Patriot Games' with Harrison Ford, and we actually shot three different versions of my death. And they settled on the third.
I saw 'The Exorcist' at the cinema when I was quite young, maybe 14. When I went back home, my mum and dad weren't in, so I had to wait for them on the main road. I were too scared to enter the house.
For some reason, the parts I play, like Boromir or Ned Stark, have a life online long afterwards. I keep seeing - what do you call them - memes?
I shared a dressing room with Pete Postlethwaite for 18 months, and he became a good friend. His discipline had an impact on me. You could have a laugh with him, but he was always on the ball when it came to work and very professional. Hopefully some of that rubbed off on me.
Tolkien was quite a religious man, and so is George R.R. Martin. They kind of have this epic quality about them when they write the material.
Listen to people and treat people as you find them. There's an inherent goodness in most people. Don't pre-judge people - that was me Mam's advice anyway.
I've been accused of being a bit too keen on my football, not least by my three ex-wives.
Where I come from, all of us wanted to be footballers. We played all the time; that's all we did at school or wherever until it went dark and you couldn't see the ball.
I'm interested in why people talk like they do. Like Boston Irish. It's so laid back. Why is that?
I don't believe you just create a character out of thin air, there's always something of yourself you bring.
Football is a passionate game. It excites us.
Jimmy McGovern - I love his writing, and I'm a big fan of him and Alan Clarke.
The stigma of movie actors doing television is gone now.
I sometimes find that playing the bad guy, or villains, or psychopaths tend to be much more psychologically rewarding. And you can really push it, you can push the limits, and get away with it.
It's a good thing about George R.R. Martin: He's prepared to kill off the main guys. You don't get the feeling that the good guy is going to last forever, like James Bond.
I'm not bad at singing - at least in the shower.
If you're going to support a football team, do it 100 per cent.
I don't like broad swords. They're not much fun. A broad sword is just a big chunk of steel, and there's not much finesse in it, not much skill, I don't think anyway.
I love doing just nothing in my free time.
It's important to enjoy who you are and to appreciate things around you.
I can't imagine doing anything except acting.
The media portrayal of women is always angled towards looking thinner and skinnier and... that's not good.
I think that you always have something left, that you take something of the character with you.
I think we have a perception of transvestites all being the same, as one block. It's not one mass or tribe. Everybody's got a different story.
I am quite quiet: I don't feel as though I have to express myself with words too often. Maybe I should do more.
You can run out of energy if you take on a lot of stuff.
I bought a Jaguar when I was 28. I'd always wanted one. I had it for years, then my friend had it, then my dad had it. It was a good workhorse.
George Martin looks like Santa Claus, but he's got a wonderfully disturbed mind.
I love creating things, especially out of metal. There's something truly satisfying about shaping a piece of metal and seeing the impurities peeling away as you weld it into your chosen design.
You can't follow another actor's performance. You can't be Robert DeNiro, because you're not Robert DeNiro, and, you know, he is.
I wouldn't say I'm a Method actor, but I do try to focus very deeply on what character I'm playing, and everything else goes out the window. I forget about everything. I try to get everything else out of my head.
It's a good thing to be typecast, isn't it?
