Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I like horses!
My bedroom's like an armoury.
I like doing stuff with my friends.
I've always been into dark colours.
All actors have to change their name.
I feel arrogant trying to give people advice.
'Great Expectations' is one of the greatest stories.
When I find a look that I like, that's my entire wardrobe.
I wouldn't want to see any animal in pain, no matter what.
I actually collect old First and Second World War memorabilia.
Determination becomes obsession and then it becomes all that matters.
I went to an all-boys school and hated feeling like one of the crowd.
I always wonder whether I'll get treated differently with a different accent.
I like being outdoors a lot, and I come from a small village that's fairly remote.
I'm not scared of animals, except for rats. I'll break down in tears if I see a rat!
I'm the biggest Chekov fan - there's something that he does that not many other writers do.
On the whole, British actors star in theater, and I think there's something quite grounding about that.
For work, I have to be living in cities, I really cherish the time when I get to be out in the countryside.
Every time I get a role I think, 'I've actually fooled them again, I can't believe they keep falling for this!
Every time I get a role I think, 'I've actually fooled them again, I can't believe they keep falling for this!'
The only mistake guys can make is to try too hard with their appearance. There's something very unmanly about it.
If a horse doesn't want to do something, you're not going to make him do it. They're incredibly powerful animals.
I think most actors will tell you the same thing; when you're not working you put 100 percent into every audition.
I think camping is one of those things where if you're forced into it as a child, you'll probably hate it as an adult.
If you go into acting to make money then you're an idiot. It's my hobby and the fact that I'm doing my hobby for a job is mental.
The work my mum does, a lot of it is re-housing homeless people, that's a real job. I play make-believe and dressing up for a living!
For me, one of the biggest thrills is going to a theater and going, "Oh, I got a laugh!" Because you never quite get to hear it [otherwise].
There's nothing nicer than coming back to your village, where people like my mum's friends take the mick out of me. I prefer that to the craziness of Hollywood.
I collect old first and second World War artifacts and things. I'm a little secret history nerd. I've been lucky enough to do quite a few war movies too so I've taken little things off each film.
I had a lot of time before I actually got my break so to speak. I was building websites for other actors. I worked in a grocery store back in the little village where I grew up but I found it mind-numbingly boring.
I think that among my friends I'm known as being a hard worker; I think if you want to be an actor, there can't be any compromise. You have to work all day, every day. It's not a 9-5 job. There's always something to learn.
It's weird when people are just staring at you because the thing is, people are not quite sure ... I get a lot of: "Are you off the TV?" It's funny. I don't and I don't get to the sort of clubs where people expect to see you.
You can be the best actor in the world, but if you don't have that one lucky moment, it kind of doesn't matter. There are a lot of amazing actors who will never get the chance to prove themselves because they won't have that one lucky moment.
Each year we go to the Cannes film festival and I tend to have all my friends pile in the back of my car and we'll drive from London. The poor production company think they're only putting me up and suddenly they've got eight people sleeping on my hotel room floor.
I had a great drama teacher, and he sort of made out drama school as this incredibly difficult thing to get into: 6,000 people apply every year, and some of the schools only have 12 places. It's a phenomenally difficult thing to get into. And that excited me - I wanted that challenge.
I spend a lot of time in L.A., and I think it would probably be easier if I lived there work wise, but there's no city like London, there is so much going on. I can jump on the Tube and be anywhere in 20 minutes, and all my friends and family are here and I'm not prepared to give that up.
I think in this world and this industry, if you let it, it does. And I feel that the people who don't have good friends and family around them are the ones who get a little funny. But I'm very lucky. I have good friends and good family and if I ever stepped out of line, my mom would take me down!
I'd love to get fat on camera. Wouldn't that be great? I'll tell you what's almost as hard though, getting bulked up, getting that big. Here we are in LA and you see guys walking down the street and everyone looks like Arnold Schwarzenegger. That's really quite grim, if you haven't done it before.
It was a movie [The Railway Man] that stayed with me a long time. It's still one of the things I'm most proud of. I got to know the man that I was playing and unfortunately he passed away just before the movie came out. It's one that meant a huge amount to me, and one that I'm particularly proud of.
My first time acting for camera really was for Steven Spielberg in War Horse. I was trained in theater and I was actually working in theater at the time. I had a small role with the Royal Shakespeare Company, which is a huge prestigious theater company back in England. I honestly thought that was as good as it got.
With a horror movie most of the actual jumps and scares are made in the edit. It's often not very scary on set and then you watch the film and suddenly it's very scary because the way the jump scares fit together building up the suspense in the audience because it's making them jump when they're least expecting it.
What I've realized is that all of these people are so successful because they love what they do and they work exceptionally hard. No one gets successful in this business by fluke really. There are probably a couple of exceptions but most people just work so hard. They are working every day and they are doing their prep.
Nearly every taping or audition has to be in an American accent, so you don't have a choice; you just have to get good at it. I'm sure you can appreciate accents - it's like learning any skill, you have to work at it and work at it and it takes an awful lot of time, until it's muscle memory and you don't have to think about it anymore.
People expect your life to change completely. The main difference is I can get work now. I can do my hobby as a job. It's great. It's a privilege. But in terms of the rest of the stuff, I still got all the same group of friends I always had. I don't do anything different. We still go to the same dirty bars and do the same things. So nothing really changes.
I'm an expert at killing time on planes now. I do a lot of reading. My secret sort of nerdy side is I'm quite into history so I read a lot of history books. Now I write for a few things and I've had a few history things published, which is cool. I indulge my nerdy side and it's kind of as far away as you can get from the acting world so that's nice as well.
The Railway Man was a particularly intense and immersive experience. I definitely got carried away. I lost about 35 pounds. I really was incredibly skinny and also quite unwell while we were filming. It wasn't very healthy. I don't recommend it. But then also doing the torture scenes, the water boarding stuff, there wasn't really any other way just to do it really.
Ralph Fiennes was a big hero of mine acting-wise growing up and while I was training. I just find him so watchable. He was playing this very intimidating character when we worked together and it certainly felt like he was in character off set as well! He was very cool. Before a scene, he'd be like, "Come on. Let's improvise. Let's just do stuff." But Jesus Christ. He's Ralph Fiennes!
I've been very reluctant on the Twitter front. But I do Instagram now, so I'm slowly coming around. I'm quite a private person, so much of what I do for my job means that I have to be quite public so I'm just nervous about everything being public. I might turn around. Three years ago, I was against all social media but I actually really enjoy Instagram now. Who knows? I never say never!
I hate the word "method acting." It's just so silly. You hear people going, "Yeah I'm a method actor." I'm like, "So what happens if you're playing a period film or something? You're in the Second World War. And what happens when your mom calls you on your phone? Do you go, 'Oh! What is this strange talking brick device?'" No. It's stupid. But you do everything you can to get in that mindset.
When I was growing up, there was a man who gave me lessons and things. I'm very dyslexic so he used to give me extra reading and writing. And he always knew that I was interested in stuff but he never told me that he was in the Second World War himself. One day he gave me his helmet that he had worn through the North Africa Campaign. It was just before he died. So I've got his helmet. That was pretty special to me.