One of the things I noticed in my career that gave me a lot of happiness early on was realising we don't have any control.
— Rupert Friend
I've been a big blagger all my life.
I find it easier to approach things from a critical angle that otherwise may seem daunting because I'm used to being scared.
I never want to overstay my welcome for any character. I would rather people are excited by the ideas a character generates in them rather than feeling bored and wishing he would just go away.
Eating cold tuna fish out of a tin on a porch while two people are in love across a lake - I think that's desperately lonely.
All I would say is that when I've been very down or having kind of a tough time in my life, certain films or pieces of music or books have changed that. They've taken me out of a dark place and put me into a more positive one. And I think that if we can do that for people, then it's certainly worth doing.
I'm a dual citizen in a way. I live in the States and have a green card, so my connection to British politics is almost nonexistent.
The Blue Ridge Mountains are an incredible place.
My grandfather, who is English, was a member of a gentleman's club called the Caledonian, which you can only be a member of if you have Scottish lineage.
Seeing, say, 'My Left Foot,' and 'The Last of the Mohicans.' How is that the same person? Or people like Johnny Depp, who can play Jack Sparrow and Edward Scissorhands. I am so interested in the transformation, in not knowing anything about them and watching somebody create a character. I'm not really interested in personalities.
I really enjoy the fact that the very boring, normal person that I am isn't kind of interesting to anyone. It's fine by me.
I'm studying Krav Maga, which is an Israeli form of self defense. It's very deadly and without rules.
I have to be absolutely drawn to the project. If you're ashamed or bored by it at the beginning, it's going to be a pretty nightmarish thing.
I got the 'I don't want the normal job' bug. At home, we have countless career advisors who would tell us to work in department stores and stay below the bar and not overreach our grasp. I didn't believe any of them.
I guess the reason I wanted to be an actor was that it felt like it would offer something different all the time.
Some are in it for the money, which is fine. Some of them are in it to be a movie star; that's another reason. Some actors - and this I never understand - will only play likeable characters. And if they're not likeable, they change them to be heroic.
If I make a film about now, the minute it was done, it wouldn't be about now; it'd be about then.
Becoming that guy who does one thing is not very interesting. I'm lucky and proud to have been involved in period films and action films.
Everybody has many people inside of them. I think we tend to present the one we feel is most appropriate at first in order to gain acceptance or achieve what we want.
I would say that being open to new things is kind of vital in this line of work, if not all lines of work, and being prepared to embrace the challenge of the new thing is something I want in my life until the day it's over.
The old saying, 'An army marches on its stomach' has never been more true than in film and television. If it's good, cheerful, and exciting and full of great yummy things, then everyone does really well. If it's the opposite, it's very disappointing.
The more I'm committed to finding a way to genuinely be immersed in someone else's life, the more enjoyment there is in it. I've never been interested in smoke and mirrors and cutting corners. I'd rather just do it for real.
The one thing I couldn't imagine is stopping still.
I'm a bit of a technophobe.
I've never been to war, and I would never presume to fully understand the horrors that that kind of experience can impart.
I find the English flag - the cross - quite frightening; it has very bad symbolism for me. Not just football hooligans but supremacists and the BNP.
When I come home, all I do is cook. I love cooking, so I go to markets, buy food, cook it for friends. I love doing that.
I don't do glamorous things.
I've never got on with recipes. Free yourself - throw them out!
I love learning things, whether it's a language or Philippine knife-fighting or the Viennese waltz.
It's an imaginative thing we do; it's about immersing oneself in one's imagination. If you're a novelist, you do it with pen and paper. We do it with our bodies.
What theatre people love about theatre - and I totally understand it, I just don't share it - is that they feel they mint something afresh every night. Because I would rather do something until I've done it and then know it's done. New day, next thing!
I went to a drama club when I was little, but it was more of an excuse to flirt with girls than anything else. We never put on plays.
It's all very brilliant to build bridges and buildings, but long after we're gone, it will be the natural things in this world which will still be here.
I was quite solitary for 'Hitman.' I was quite apart. He struck me as a very sad individual. There was a mournful quality there.
I'm a big fan of imagination. I think it's the strongest tool we have, and there are some things that you just can't practice.
We have characters in Western television shows who are in full health with shiny hair and shiny teeth, and they go about their lives having minor problems.
I am a very sporadic watcher of television. I don't watch a lot of it.
One of my uncles took me to my first movie in a cinema - 'Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.'
I'm not a big fan of people telling each other what to do, I'll say that.
I was asked by this British band called Kairos 4Tet to write lyrics for them. And I wrote lyrics for them. The album is called 'Everything We Hold,' and you can hear my lyrics.
I'm always interested in what we're not being shown. So if you're playing ostensibly a quote-unquote 'baddie,' what are their good sides, and vice versa.
Even if it's a bit blunt, I really appreciate somebody being straight with you.
I've never really thought about settling down anywhere. I like to keep moving.
Han Solo is more interesting than Superman because he's flawed. Superman's flaw is kryptonite, and that's it. He can make time go backwards, for God's sake, but with Han Solo or Indiana Jones, there's a bit of humanity there.
Wood is weirdly a big passion of mine. I really love it, all the way from trees to a finished table. The fact that it was alive and that each piece is different.
I find dipping one's toe into all of these people's lives is one of the major exciting points of being an actor. This dilettantism.
'We' is a difficult word for me. I don't know if I feel 'we' about anything.
I don't love plays. I don't love doing the same thing, every night, for 100 nights in a row.
The most contemporary film I can think of is your standard romantic comedy, but the minute you make them, they already look so aged.
