Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Give me a sword fight any day.
I love travelling. I love cultures.
The idea that I had a bohemian childhood is laughable.
I love new writing, new blood, modern works by unknown writers.
Doubt is crucial, I think, in every character I have ever played.
You know what? Joy is the only guide. I'm going to have fun regardless.
What I love about my work is that I'm forced to look through my character's eyes.
I want my daughters to live in a world where there is equality and parity of pay.
I don't know what my limitations are until I reach them. I look for the challenge.
There is more meat and mileage in complex characters, like 'Running with Scissors.'
I love life. I'm fascinated by human behavior because that feeds back into my work.
I think everything I do is my early work. I can't wait to get on to the later stuff.
I never went into acting to do film. I went into it to do theatre - classical roles.
There is a bit of me if I'm pushed in one way I might bounce back and go the opposite.
Film is not as exhilarating, not as physically, mentally, or spiritually challenging, as theatre.
When I was offered the part in Shakespeare In Love a voice in my head said 'not another tights role!
Whether you're a believer or not, I think there's a huge value in understanding the quality of redemption.
I like language, and in film, language is diluted by the visuals and the music. Theatre is what I was trained for.
I can only put myself in the process and try to learn through the process. Sometimes it will go well and sometimes it won't.
I love to read profiles about people, but I'm interested in their processes. I only ever do them for newspapers that I love.
I'm a huge admirer of Pope Francis and everything he stands for. I think he's an incredibly connected spiritual and authentic being.
I think religion might throw up a kind of resistance, but I think if one talks about conditioning we can all kind of understand that.
I've always believed that you shouldn't want to mend a broken heart, because that's someone you don't want to forget. Scars can be good.
The great thing about films is that you have access to this whole world of experts who teach you the skills your character's supposed to have.
Pretty much all films I've seen that depict the life of Christ end with the Crucifixion, almost like the filmmakers don't know what to do after.
I was baptised a Catholic and, although I'm not a churchgoer now, I do have a strong sense of the integrity of doing what you believe to be true.
If you want to make idols accessible - which I think Shakespeare should be - then you have to bring a human touch, make it self-effacing and warm.
When you wake up, and you see that America has pulled out of the climate deal in Paris, that sends huge messages about putting coal before the planet.
Working backstage as a teenager made me realise there's not much glamour in this profession - just lots of hard work. That's a good thing to learn early on.
I meet people in my business who have this extraordinary ability to understand human nature in their work, but in real life, they don't seem to have the first clue.
What I don't find compelling is doing classical plays that everyone already knows - and people are following with the text in their hand because no one is listening.
But it's a strange thing when people judge you because you're not doing some big Hollywood film. Are you suggesting I should be in The Dukes of Hazzard? I mean, hello?
But it's a strange thing when people judge you because you're not doing some big Hollywood film. Are you suggesting I should be in 'The Dukes of Hazzard?' I mean, hello?
I think everyone around me played a part in raising me; there isn't one individual I could pick out - it was more a case of it taking the whole village to raise the child.
Youth is a predominant factor. We are seeing a young King Arthur, and thereby a young-ish - as I'm into my 40s - Merlin. It was about how to tackle it, from that point view.
It takes years to establish yourself, and then you have one big film and everyone calls you an overnight success. You think, 'Christ, I've been sweating and crying for seven years.'.
From the age of about five to twelve I was very bad, a hideous little terror who beat people up. I was a member of a Rough Gang - we went around and terrorised all the pupils in school.
From the age of about five to twelve I was very bad, a hideous little terror who beat people up. I was a member of the Rough Gang - we went around and terrorized all the pupils in school.
I guess, as an actor, you have to bring something personal to the character - you've got to identify and love one element of the character, or else you can't really inhabit and find ownership.
I've got a vendetta to destroy the Net, to make everyone go to the library. I love the organic thing of pen and paper, ink on canvas. I love going down to the library, the feel and smell of books.
I have two sisters that are directors: one's in documentary, one's in film. My mother was a writer and a painter, so I've been surrounded since childhood by dynamic women and female voices in arts.
I think 'The Handmaid's Tale' always had that power since it was written over 30 years ago. This extraordinary piece of feminist literature had its fan base then, but TV has given it an enormous reach.
I guess there's nothing I don't like about Merlin, in this presentation. I love everything, even the things I find despicable and abhorrent in Merlin. They're actually a joy to ride on the tailcoats of.
There are always going to be times when it doesn't flow as much as you were hoping. So of course I'm going to fail. And when I do fail I hope I fail better and better, again and again. I am happy to fail.
I may seem to have worn a lot of tights in films, but actually, those are just the films that have been most visible or worked best. I have worn jeans a lot, too, but those ones haven't tended to work so well.
I think academics are infuriating. For every expert on Shakespeare there is another one to cancel his theory out. It drives you up the wall. I think the greatest form of finding out the truth is through fantasy.
At home, our parents never compared us. I mean, there were seven of us kids. Obviously, I always looked up to my brother and his work, and I have nothing but utter respect. But I never felt we were in competition.
I think all experience is, in some way, shape or form, filtered down to help you, in your present moment. With Shakespeare, you're trying to act with a fairly archaic language, although in certain aspects, it's deeply modern.
I like the fact that we're stripping the icons away. They're the WikiLeaks for the age that we're revealing, with the transparency of the characters. We're unearthing the truth beyond or underneath the myth. I love that aspect.
It all felt like a terribly long time. It would have meant that I had to make five movies in five years and if you don't like the movies, too bad. I guess I just wanted my freedom, and I think my life has been incredibly enhanced as a result.