Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
The Peugeot is a very unthreatening car.
Instantly when I'm acting, I kick into Frank Agnew face.
My genes are such that I've always been relatively in shape.
Some jobs you do, they're just jobs. Others are life experiences.
In the past, if I didn't work, I didn't eat but now I feel I can not work and I won't starve.
The idea of transformation - playing something I'm not - is the bit I enjoy most about acting.
I do get antsy if I haven't got lines to learn, a character to play. But yes, I do take holidays.
Listen - in life, if you can go into work and spend the day with Halle Berry, you're doing alright.
My style icon has always been David Bowie. Just because of the variety of images and looks he created.
I can't imagine anything worse than being in a position that you're not allowed to live your life privately.
It's always interesting when you play a part and then suddenly people think you're an authority on the subject.
I loved making The Imitation Game and it's really gratifying to hear the audience's response to the character that I play.
Rowan Joffe is very specific. I mean, he wrote it as well and he has a very orderly writer's mind and the same applies to his directing.
The important bit for an actor is the actual shooting of it, because the minute the shoot ends, it's got nothing to do with you anymore.
I think it serves the purpose of the film if the premise is that you're unsure of me because you've only ever really seen me play villains.
When you're making a psychological thriller, what you need to do is have an audience on shifting sand so they're never quite sure where they are.
As an actor, that's what you want. You want variety. I want to try things that I'm not used to and push my own envelope and see what I'm capable of.
Every now and again, a script comes along that you just can't put down, and 'Deep State' is exactly that - a great example of the best kind of writing.
There is no part of me that wants to have to pull the blinds down when I'm talking to my wife about dinner because some photographer is in a bush outside.
I've always thought that speaking a foreign language from a young age makes you a little bolder when it comes to speaking and doing accents and things like that.
I studied law, so perhaps I might have made it to the Bar, though I gave up that idea when I suspected playing a barrister was probably much more fun than being one.
I've pretty much played every regional accent you can play in the U.K. I've played German, French, Arabic; I've been Jordanian, Lebanese. I've covered a lot of ground.
I've played lots of villains in my time and I think the reason they've been so successful is that they're not two-dimensional. They're not black and white. That's the gig.
I love all those dark, twisty shows, but my favorite show at the moment is 'Girls.' I love watching it. I've forgot how self-absorbed you can be at 21 years old or whatever.
You do a play, or you go on set for the first day of filming: if you don't have nerves, and you don't have any kind of adrenalin pushing you forward, then something is wrong.
I was born in London, and my family is here. America is an interesting place, but it's incredibly different culturally. It doesn't take long being there before I want to get back.
I did perform in punk bands, but it was more about shouting and snarling than about any beautiful music. I enjoyed singing in 'The Golden Circle' - I've never sung in a movie before.
As an only child, particularly if you're a boy without a father, you have to work out for yourself who you're going to be. And I do think, over the years, I've developed a need for control.
There's an honourable tradition of British actors who've gone to Hollywood playing baddies. Part of that is because we grow up with Richard III and Macbeth - we're not afraid of our villains.
I had fantasies of being a European lawyer, but I quickly realised I probably just had fantasies of wearing a raincoat and carrying a briefcase and driving a BMW. I thought that would be cool.
I'm sure, in real life, spying is boring - there's probably a lot of sitting around and plenty of paperwork. But the world seems to think that spying is exciting, and that's how movies get made.
I'm very organized and tidy in my home life and I generally do something myself rather than farm it out to somebody else. I don't have an assistant or anything because I think I can do it myself.
I'm like anyone; I make a lot of my assumptions about actors I don't know from what I read about them. And then I'll find those judgments are often completely confounded when I meet them in real life.
I'm going to try to play some good guys for a while and just see how that is. It's hard to enjoy them as much as the bad guys, and the clothes are nowhere near as good. Good guys don't wear nice suits!
It's important to me that I don't spend too much time away from the family. I try to pick jobs that will keep me as close to home as possible or, if I have to go far away, for as little time as possible.
I've put my friends and family through the wringer over the years, I have to say, by doing unspeakable things to people, not the least of which was pulling out poor George Clooney's fingernails in Syriana.
All these portrayals we see of knights fighting must be absolute rubbish because knights in armour could literally have only had two or three blows and then they'd have had to sit down to have a cup of tea.
In the movie, you have to decide as an actor how you are going to give a character presence. You can't really move, walk, and talk like yourself. This creates something so you have to find something "other".
Acting can be a very cruel mistress. It's not a meritocracy. In other walks of life, by being good at what you do, you can achieve success. That isn't always the case in this business. Every actor knows that.
I got sent the script [ Before I Go To Sleep] as usually happens and you have a little look. I know it's a bit of a cliché, but it was absolutely a page turner. I mean, I wanted to find out what happened next.
I'm sure part of the baggage that I bring having played a lot of villains is also pertinent to the movie [Before I Go To Sleep], because I'm sure people look at me and think, "Oh, I'm not sure I trust him or not."
The person I respect most, in terms of historical figures, is probably Nelson Mandela. I just think that his tolerance in the face of extreme provocation is something every single person on the planet could learn from.
The Secret Service I'm really excited about because Matthew Vaughn directed it. I've done a couple of movies with him - Stardust, which is one of my favorite films, and Kick-Ass, which is just a crazy, wonderful movie.
I studied at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, which was founded by Laurence Olivier and has alumni like Jeremy Irons and Daniel Day Lewis. It's a very erudite institution; its ethos, really, was always theatre-based.
[Before I Go To Sleep] script was a great journey with all the twists and turns that were kind of unexpected. I had to finish the script, and I thought if we can emulate this in the film, it's going to be a really good film.
And I think in your 40s, you land a little bit, physically and mentally, you arrive at a place where you feel you've learned some stuff. Having children at that point meant I had something very useful to do for the next 20 years.
I'm not a writer, inherently. Most of the writers I've met have stories they need to tell. I don't have that. I'm an interpreter. I like getting a script, seeing a character and thinking, "Oh, wow, I know what I can do with that."
It's great to have the chance to play a character before he goes to the dark side, or the yellow side if you will. Normally, you don't get that opportunity. The narrative of a movie usually demands that you are that guy from the start.
I have to say, when you make a movie, you really have no idea how it's going to turn out as an actor. The important bit for an actor is the actual shooting of it because the minute the shoot ends, it's got nothing to do with you anymore.
Part of me was fascinated by the idea that I would only get next week's episode a week in advance and wouldn't actually know where I was going with it, until the script landed on my mat. But, part of me wanted to know what was going to happen.