That's one of the main things I've learned: honesty is paramount. The biggest thing I try and instil in my daughter. My deepest regrets have been to do with times that I've been dishonest. There's nothing worse than getting caught out in a lie. It's excruciatingly embarrassing.
— David Thewlis
I wanted to do 'Fargo' rather than do a TV production. I've been offered TV things over the years, but usually, that's about that I don't want to be away from home for that long because it's a long time to be away your home country and my family.
I often do that with characters, going back to my bloody drama-school days, in terms of equating them with creatures. And it's very much there as a theme of all the seasons of 'Fargo' as well: the predator and the prey.
I often draw from people in my own experience to base a character on, going back to my days with Mike Leigh.
I've realized over the years I either play very good people or very bad people, and I think I always enjoy the very bad people more.
I don't think they should trust anything that happens in 'Fargo' at all, and I'm sure 'Fargo' fans know not to make the mistake of trusting too much.
'Naked' propelled me into a whole other league. America started calling. I went over to Los Angeles and met all those people, and I started doing a few American films of various levels of quality.
I had grown up in a toy shop in Blackpool and then moved to London to do an acting course.
It's not the easiest thing to have two actors in a family.
I'm much more Buddhist. I mean, I'm not a Buddhist. I should be so lucky to be a Buddhist, a real Buddhist, but of all the things I investigated, that seems to make the most sense to me.
'An Inspector Calls' is a British classic, and I am thrilled to be working on this beautiful screen adaptation with Aisling Walsh.
People sometimes say, 'Why do you choose a part?' and sometimes it's not that I chose it but that that was the one that came along.
It's a bit odd to have a daughter who sounds American.
I really like Los Angeles. I like the weather, the openness of it, the beach, the mountains, the desert. I find it inspiring. I get quite a lot of writing done out there.
Most parts I've played since 'Naked,' I can barely remember who they were, let alone repeat any lines.
I used to write out of angst. My writing was quite miserable, quite angry, even when it was funny. It was based on this sadness and tired emotional disdain for the world.
I adore children. If I weren't an actor, I would be a teacher or work with small children in some way. I feel happy in their company.
'Harry Potter' is very nice because it's very easy to make children happy. All you have to do is have your photograph taken with them.
A lot of the city boys in London, a lot of the hedge-fund, young city workers at the height of the financial boom were a lot of working-class, brilliantly minded young fellows and women.
I was a young actor in my 20s, going out in Soho, having a wild time.
I think I've had more fun playing Varga than I've had for quite a number of years playing anything.
What is truth? What is a true story? Who is telling the truth, and what is truth in this world today?
I don't think its good for the soul to invest too much of yourself in technology.
One can only improvise what one knows.
I love being a dad.
I had no idea how one became an actor. I didn't know things such as drama schools existed. It all just sort of happened accidentally.
I would consider myself one of the least misogynistic men in the country - if anything, just the opposite.
Everybody knows someone like that: wonderful, attractive people full of passion and ideals. You envy them, but you know there's a dark side, which is brutal and cruel and violent. That dark side informs what's wonderful about them, and the passion and rage inform the darkness; they're inseparable.
You become judged entirely on your ability to bring in the dollars, and the fact that none of the films I did was a huge hit became significant.
The oddest things happen to me. It goes in seasons. Nothing will happen for a long time, and I miss it, and I remember how these strange coincidences used to happen to me and how amazing it was, how it made me want to believe in something. A year will go by, and then a slew of them will come along, like buses, one after another.
I like tourists. I think it's nice to live in a town that people come from all over to visit.
In the prepping for 'Azkaban,' I read 'Azkaban' and 'Goblet of Fire.'
Trying to keep a relationship going on the phone is disastrous.
I must have read three-quarters of 'Anna Karenina' on my phone. Which might be a record.
As soon as I have the script in my hand, I'll be up in my apartment room pacing up and down learning it because it's just such a lovely thing to do.
I got hooked to American news like a great TV season. It plays like fiction. I would come home from work, and I would put it on, and I would stay up until 2 in the morning watching it and get up in the morning and watch it.
The whole question of 'What is truth?' seemed to be the theme of Trump's presidency.
I enjoy things that are so far away from me; that's why, when I play things that are a little bit closer to me, I get really bored. When it's something that's the antithesis of what I am, there's much more to lose yourself in.
I think Varga is a manifestation, certainly, and someone who can thrive and profit from the world's failure and has worked out the operation, whatever the operation may be, that he's about, which will remain a mystery.
It's not my ambition to direct lots of films. I think if I direct one film in my whole life, why rush it?
I've never been that bothered about doing stage or television. I just love doing films. With theatre, it goes on night after night.
It was so boring, and 'Dragonheart' was so unchallenging - there was no research involved or any rehearsal. So I was in my hotel room every night with no English-language TV except 'Beavis and Butt-head' at 10 o'clock every night.
I kind of drifted into acting through a series of coincidences.
I've always tended to write comedy, but I'd hate to just write some kind of sitcom or a lighthearted series of jokes and slapstick. I wanted to talk about some deeper things within the comedy.
I did 'Basic Instinct 2' because I had a baby about to be born, and the director said we could shoot before the due date.
When I'm sat in the pub with my mates, they've got their stories: Richard and Tracy have split up, they went to Arsenal and this fight broke out... My anecdotes are like, 'I was in this bar, and Michelle Pfeiffer rang, and I had wax in my ear, so I couldn't hear what she was saying...'
I was interested in the idea of celebrity... some very untalented people getting very successful and making a lot of money for not a lot of work, sometimes.
I like time off. I'm not a workaholic.
Playing a character who becomes a Buddhist was a great experience.
I think the most beautiful sound is a child laughing.
