I'm not really very ambitious.

Your version of the truth is all that matters.

The good guy only gets the girl in a soppy way.

I just love working. I really enjoy the work, whatever it is.

Baddies always do get the best lines, that's the honest truth.

I'm attracted to seeing how different I can be, pushing the boat out.

Madonna is the most famous woman on the planet and has been for a number of decades.

Now here I am playing a passionate young Irishman who would die for what he believes in.

I don't have any expectations as an actor and being rich and famous is not my driving force.

I don't have any expectations as an actor, and being rich and famous is not my driving force.

I talked to everyone about the project: actors and extras, members of the crew and passers by.

I'm more interested in enjoying my life and looking after my family than being hugely successful.

When I left school I went to Australia for a year and worked in the drama department of a school in Perth.

It felt good doing a physical job, and going home each evening feeling like I had really done a day's work.

I've never done anything comedic. In all the years I've been an actor, I've never delivered one comedic line.

I find it incredibly romantic that people should fight for a cause they believe in and be prepared to die for it.

It was only when I finished the course and left my graduation diploma on the bus that I realized I'd become an actor.

It was only when I finished the course and left my graduation diploma on the bus that I realised I'd become an actor.

The reason I wanted to be an actor is that I don't want to play me for the rest of my life and make money out of that.

There are lots of people I admire and respect, but I don't necessarily want to be like them. I'm too happy being myself.

I'm not really very ambitious. I'm more interested in enjoying my life and looking after my family than being hugely successful.

There is an odd sense of responsibility attached to appearing in a drama about a real piece of history. A work of fiction is fun.

It's difficult to gauge that. With a bad guy you just know you're bad. To play a nice guy is harder - unless you are a very nice person like me of course.

I went further and further back through the centuries to get a sense of perspective but now at least I understand why Irish history evokes such strong passions and emotions.

Although this is a fictitious story the history is real. You don't want to re-write history but you certainly want to portray events and characters as realistically as you can.

I, like many people, had some sort of preconception about Madonna. One of the preconceptions was that she had the extraordinary work ethic, which turned out to be absolutely true.

I've played my fair share of unpleasant character, and I have to tell you that you sleep better when you're playing fun characters. You think you don't take it home with you, at the end of the filming day, but subconsciously, there's something floating around in the background there.

I know that Madonna is not a first-time filmmaker, but I have worked with a lot of first time filmmakers and I have worked with a lot of inexperienced film directors so that never has particularly worried me - I find it quite exciting - but I have never worked with a director who has had so little experience of directing who was so prepared.

All directors on all sets behave slightly differently depending on what the scene is. For example, if you are doing a love scene, which is intimate then the director is likely to be intimate. If you are doing a scene where everyone is mucking around and laughing then the director is likely to start with that. If you are playing a scene which us incredibly heavy and everyone getting killed then there are probably not many laughs on the set.

I respect journalism. I was always very aware of journalism from a very broad point of view, but I'd say my baptism by fire was doing the Donald Margulies play Time Stands Still. That for me was a real education because I spent a lot of time with some incredible journalists, war reporters particularly - Bob Woodruff, Dexter Filkins - people who were very helpful in painting the picture for me and reading the accounts of people and what they experienced, a lot of PTSD.

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