I've become really aware since putting out music that some people can't get past the acting thing. But acting was never what I meant to do.
— Jacob Anderson
Depression and anxiety affect a huge number of us. It's so important that the barriers that keep us from talking, seeking out help, and finding a way to cope when things feel desperate are removed.
Mum and I have always been close. Her adoptive parents died when she was 18, and she doesn't have any other kids, so I'm her only family. She lives life to the full, and I envy her vitality. She has pink hair and is a younger spirit than me.
You can get money, and you can win awards, and you can be on magazines, but that's not going to make you happy.
I don't know who can really relate to being cool. Even people who you think are cool, they are trying to be cool. Nobody can understand the feeling of being cool, really.
I don't want to be scared. I want to keep taking risks, keep working hard.
I don't want to be a celebrity. I don't want to be on posters. I want to be good.
I don't really go to fancy parties, so I'm not really familiar with that kind of celebrity lifestyle. I don't dress up a lot. My girlfriend and I walk a lot and watch a lot of movies, and my friends and I go to the park or each others' houses.
My head is filled with things I think I should be doing or should've done already. I slow down because I doubt myself or I get anxious or have a bout of depression. Then I have to build my confidence back up, and once that happens, then I power through until the next time.
My mom listened to a lot of house music. My dad listened to a lot of roots and dub. I've got a lot of bass. It's been in my whole life.
'Time in a Tree' is a song about when you find yourself in a busy state of mind, which I often find myself in. Sometimes it can feel like you can't physically get out of it, or you can't mentally or physically bring yourself out of that... it's like having traffic in your brain.
More than anything, acting was more like a confidence thing. I love words - I love English - but I don't have a hugely academic brain, so I enjoyed it because it was a bit of a respite. I don't think I really had a sense I would actually be a musician or an actor; I just wanted to be around that.
I would never have a listening party! That's super awkward. Having to watch other people listen to or appraise something you've done is the most uncomfortable experience you could ever have.
I hadn't watched 'Lord of the Rings' - I'm gonna get so much flack for this, but I hadn't watched 'Lord of the Rings' when I started watching 'Game of Thrones.'
I'm definitely introverted, and I like my own company, and I can keep my head down while I'm going about my day, but then I do have spells of mad hyperactivity.
I'm the clumsiest person in the world, so every day brings an embarrassing moment.
I didn't know many people in London and became depressed, ending up in therapy. One day, the therapist called me Josh instead of Jacob, and I was mortified. I was telling this woman things I'd never told anyone, and she didn't even know my name.
My parents divorced when I was 18 months old. They haven't always been the best of friends, but they were good at keeping that stuff away from me.
I'm such a pessimist. I find it impossible to enjoy anything, especially while it's happening. I'm thinking about how to get the next thing right.
For evening stuff, I like Topman. It's good value; it fits well. I surprise a lot of people when they ask me what I'm wearing, and I say Topman. They always expect it to be something more expensive.
I can't even believe that anyone's paying to see me. It's so weird that there's a good possibility that at least 10 people I don't know have bought my music.
I spend an awful lot of time thinking about stuff that's happened, but I don't want to be someone who's only writing songs because it's therapy.
I write songs when I need to. That's how I write songs: when there's something that's bugging me. If something's troubling me, and I don't really know how to articulate it to people directly - my friends, my family, or my girlfriend - then I'll write a song about it because I know I can articulate it that way.
Music was something I chose that I came to as a kid, and acting was something that was suggested to me.
I wouldn't categorize myself as R&B or hip-hop. I don't really know how to categorize myself. I'm still working out where I fit with that stuff. I kind of think of myself as pop.
I wanted to write or direct more than I wanted to be in front of the camera. I still occasionally feel completely uncomfortable being looked at.
I'm generally a fairly shy, withheld person. But when I get onstage, I get a bit mad.
I watch films and TV almost like as a hobby - not even as a hobby: it's bordering on careerist. It would be easier to tell you what I'm not into than what I am.
I'm kind of... I'm a sci-fi fan, and I like horror; I'm a genre fan... but fantasy's not really ever something I've gotten into.
A good rapper is an amazing thing to me. It's like a 17th-, 18th-century poet.
I really love being in 'Game of Thrones,' but I don't know if it's my big break.
I was a very anxious kid. I was bullied at primary school and responded by making myself as anonymous as possible at secondary school.
I'm not going to lie: I'm awful at mornings. Once I'm awake, it still takes me half an hour to actually get out of bed.
I like to talk to the audience once the show starts, as much as possible, and feel connected to them. I don't feel quite as nervous when I do that because, then, you feel like they're on your side.
This is going to sound like a lie, but the 'Game of Thrones' set is so good to work on. I've been a part of plays and other projects where egos get in the way and there are constant fallings out. There's none of that there.
I kind of slept through school. I wasn't engaged at all. My exercise books were empty at the end of the year. But I didn't sleep through drama, probably because there wasn't a desk, so my teacher sent me to this audition.
That's a really important legacy for me: to work hard and be kind to other human beings.
Bristol is known for having quite a good success rate of music - Massive Attack and Portishead, that drum and bass, dance music scene. I never listened to that stuff when I was a kid, but my parents did, and my parents knew some of those people.
I had eJay, and then I had Acid Pro. I had a crack of both of them, and I would just make little loops, and then I'd hum along to them. I used to spend a lot of time on a computer looking for music and making beats and stuff.
For me, I could not wait to get out of school, but at the same time, you miss the people.
No one ever told me I had a good voice or anything; no one ever told me I could sing. They just let me get on with it.
I want to be rich enough that, without being cruel, I could buy a horse, a white horse, and permanently attach a horn. A pearlescent horn. And then I could just be like, 'Yeah, I have a unicorn.' But I don't know how you do that without being cruel.
As a kid, growing up, as far as I was concerned, I was Luke Skywalker. Any sort of small victory or any adversity I would come up against at school, I was like, 'How would Luke Skywalker deal with this?' Everybody was the Empire; anybody who bullied me at school was the Empire.
I don't think I have a very novelistic brain. I like to read, but I don't know if I could ever write a novel.
I need all of my songs while I'm writing them, because I need to get the stuff out of my body and out of my brain. I write out of necessity, not because I want to be a pop star.
