'24' had to withstand accusations of being right-wing, but 'Homeland' is a far more liberal show.
— Damian Lewis
I remember, when I was doing 'Nicholas Nickleby', James Archer came to see me at the interval and said, 'My father would like to see you after the show.' It felt rather as if I had been summoned by the Queen, and I was cocky enough to think, 'Who the hell is he to summon me?'
I think people like to be scared. I think people like tension and suspense in a movie.
Writing and directing might be a red herring, and really I'm just re-examining what it is to act, to do it well and do it properly.
I'm very lucky.
No Western government has ever played the long-term in terms of foreign policy.
In the end, there's something of the puritan work ethic about me that roles really must sustain me on an intellectual level.
What I do believe in is the moral code of Christianity.
I'm a slow starter.
I want to make a clear distinction between people who take acting seriously and people who call themselves actors because they've been on reality TV or something.
I've always had a 'Work hard, play hard' attitude to life - I still do - but sometimes you get involved in something that needs a calm, methodical approach.
My parents were incredibly inclusive.
L.A. still ranks as one of my guilty pleasures, along with butter-pecan ice cream and Coldplay albums.
Dramatically it's always more interesting to conceal rather than reveal things.
There are lots of different reasons to choose roles.
I'm sponsored by Audi, so I have this rather lovely rather arrangement where they just insist that I'm always in the latest model.
A lot of these American actors have this - in my view - misplaced view that they have to look like Action Man. The trouble is, they all run the risk of being interchangeable.
I'm very sad 'Life' wasn't a big hit, But it was undone by politics at NBC. It was intense. I moved my wife, and we had two children back to back. So working those hours and living abroad in L.A. was a handful. But it was a great experience.
I think you can't be really posh and be an interesting actor. I'm a bit of a posh rough.
It's good to be busy on a film set because there is a lot of sitting around, so if you've got two roles to play at one time, then that's great to do.
I've discovered just how symbiotic the relationship is between writers, directors and actors. They ask the same questions and strip down texts in exactly the same way.
Producing is a world of compromise and actors are utterly spoiled all the time.
You know, this idea of going around the world imposing democracy by growing a middle-class, a trading merchant class that is independent of your faith, is a good notion, but we're all partially different - it's no good imposing systems on people that it doesn't suit.
It's an unfair comparison because when things are developed in the UK, they're developed at script stage only.
I love going for a swim. Growing up in England, anywhere with a pool seems like the height of glamour to me.
In England we burnt redheads at the stake, because we thought they were witches. There are still young redheads in Britain getting ripped for having red hair. 'Oy, Ginger!'
I'm no more or less antisocial than the next person.
The lesson I learned is that sometimes the task you have at hand needs all of your concentration and focus.
A cricket ball broke my nose when I was a kid so I couldn't breath through it. Before I had it operated on I used to stand on stage with my mouth slightly open.
The best shows succeed because they tap into a national conversation.
If you only do issue-based drama, you can become a boring wanker.
Of course the lower classes have always felt downtrodden and aspired to a better life. But there is this theory that people respond to a class structure in England - there was a time when people knew who they were and knew whom they served and as long as management wasn't abusive, it was a good life for people.
I have a three-year-old and a four-year-old at home, and my mornings are about just dealing with the fact of that. I oddly enjoy it.
I was, if you like, a successful schoolboy in that I had a degree of talent in all the required things that make you a success at school.
I suppose where I am sort of reflects the work I have chosen to do. Are there occasional frustrations because I can't work with a certain director because it's a big studio movie, and I don't have enough of a studio profile? The answer is yes. But generall... generally, I have the career I have chosen myself.
There's something important, as an actor, about allowing yourself to be approached by people to do roles. People see different things in you.
You can't be sent away to prison for life and feel OK about it.
Acting can be a narrow and isolated experience, because you only examine your particular part.
Temperamentally I'm not a natural producer, because I don't have the patience.
I'd feel guilty just doing gags.
When I'm working in America, I wake up with an American accent and stay with it all day till makeup comes off. I just want everyone to be at ease, and not have the show's creators think, 'Oh my god, he's so English, why did we hire him?'
I love playing sport.
People need revelation, and then they need resolution.
My heroes were all in the theatre.
For me the rehearsal period is the part I most enjoy. It's the creating of the story.
There are ways of avoiding becoming tabloid fodder and therefore giving people license to pry into your private life. And there's a distinction between being an actor and being a celebrity. You may become a celebrity through acting, but you don't need to do so.
Why do you think so many actors are only half-developed people? It's very easy when you're a young actor to have these intense, explosive friendships for short periods of time, because you can control what's shown of you. Then you go on to your next job and reinvent yourself again. I think it's important to find something constant.
You can't do something that is morally vacuous or dysfunctional and then write it off saying, 'It wasn't my film, I was just doing a job in it.'
I'm always forming bands.
I don't mean this grandly, but it was never my intention to live in L.A. and do a big network show.
