You can't beat a love triangle.

When you walk onto a Peter Jackson set, you can see straightaway that money isn't an issue.

I left the Gaiety School of Acting in Dublin in 2004, and I did five years of theater after that.

I'm not an extravagant person. You don't get a chance to spend money when you're working on a TV show.

On a beautiful clear Sunday morning, myself and James Nesbitt jumped out of a plane together at 18,000 feet.

I didn't want to feel like I was mimicking or copying someone else's performance, whether it's subconscious or not.

It's hard to know at any stage whether a show is going to work or not. Every few years, a different trend comes along.

Every actor wants to change things up a bit. You don't want to be pigeonholed, and not just because of what the industry might think.

There's no point in really making something if it doesn't appeal to a lot of people or the masses or if it's not seen by a lot of people.

I think every actor wants a certain amount of control. Maybe not control, as such, but just to be part of the process. But it's not necessary, I guess.

You can have a good vibe and a good feeling about something, but you never really know how it's going to be received and how an audience is going to react to it.

I want to spend the night alone in a haunted mansion. I wouldn't say I'm sceptical because that word implies the truth is out there when there is no truth out there.

In 'The Hobbit,' there were British, Irish, Australian and New Zealand actors, and Peter Jackson was adamant that we would all sound like we were from Britain somewhere.

I feel like a bit of a phony sometimes - I started acting because I didn’t know what else to do. I filled in all these university application forms and honestly didn’t want to do any of the courses.

I like working, I'm not into relaxing. Work motivates me, and even when I do take a holiday, I meet friends, talk about projects and set up meetings, set meetings between other people, or get involved.

There's nothing like an opening night or like the curtain going up and having a full house, but also having weeks and weeks to work with your director and cast members and try to crack the play. It's great.

When you're part of an ensemble and share the screen with so many people, you become close to them because you're hanging out all the time. Obviously you have your ups and downs, but that kind of brings you closer in many ways.

I don't speculate too much about the future. That's the thing about this job - it's so fickle. You take the jobs, you read the scripts and, if something interests you and you like the people who are working on it, you go for it.

I was really into films when I was younger, but I feel like a bit of a phony sometimes - I started acting because I didn't know what else to do. I filled in all these university application forms and honestly didn't want to do any of the courses.

A good trick I learnt early on is not to immediately look at playback because once you know the shot, you can see when the camera is on you. It's best to stay 'in it' all the time, and just if it's on you, it's on you, and if it's not, it's not. It's the easiest way.

Sometimes during a show or a film, while you're shooting it, you'll think, "This is great, it's going to be fantastic, the script is incredible, and the actors are great, and everything is working out brilliantly." And then you see it, and you kind of go, "Oh god, it's not as good as I thought it was," and it doesn't get an audience to watch it. It only does a couple of festivals and then dies and whatever.

At eight o'clock the curtain goes up and that's it, you're out there with yourself, the audience, the other players. There's no "take two" business. You're on. The great thing is the rehearsals, too. When you're bouncing around on film sets and TV sets you don't really get the opportunity to - generally speaking - rehearse much. With theater you're kind of four-to-five weeks locked down in the room with the guys figuring stuff out. It's back to play school.

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