Stories have always been the things that entertain me and make me feel happy and sad and move me and give me the experience of being able to live many lives in one lifetime. It's the best thing about being alive.
When I was at drama school, I wanted to change the world, and thought I had some great wisdom to impart to people about humanity. Now that I'm older, I know enough to realise that I know nothing at all.
Getting older is a struggle. I always feel that just under the surface of acceptance and enjoyment of the ageing process is a terrible hysteria just waiting to burst out.
Although my family - parents and sister - all work in the personnel management business, their real passion is performing, amateur operatic societies and so on.
My dad is a Jack Nicholson lookalike and a frustrated performer, my mother's into reading and poetry. I suppose the thing I owe them most is my confidence.
By the time you are 30 you are still trying to make your 15-year-old self happy but you are a different person. You need to be brave and let go of that.
My chief gifts are - naturally good at all sports with a raw talent for pretty much everything, which if nurtured could develop into improper talent.
When you come to actually act, it's a game. It may be a very serious game, but it's still a game. If you lose that sense of play, the work suffers.
A parent can seem very kind and gentle, but as any child knows, as soon as that parent gets stressed, they can suddenly turn and get a bit angry.
We live in a bubble of the fantasy of death, but the reality of it is something that we obviously all face and have to deal with, at some point.
As a general thing, I've always been drawn to characters who appear to be one thing on the surface, but are actually something else underneath.
With vampires, there is such a great tradition that you suddenly find yourself a part of. Each generation reinvents what that means to them.
Acting itself is quite scary. Some people say that actors are show-offs, very egotistical and all that kind of stuff, but it is quite scary.
I love being able to play as many different characters, in as many different worlds as I possibly can. That's what I really enjoy.
I think the story of 'Alice in Wonderland' in a way is a reminder that life is frightening, it can shift on you at any moment.
No matter how difficult things are, and no matter how much grief and loss there is, you can turn it into something positive.
It's funny the more technological advanced everything gets, the more like acting in your bedroom when you're a kid it is.
I try not to pay any attention to clothes fascism and I'd rather be thought of as someone who has his own sense of style.
I perceive and relate to the world through where I grew up; that's part of me. It's what I judge everything else against.
I think when you work on a Woody Allen film the actors become a real company, probably more than on any other film.
A lot of the times when I've auditioned for parts in America, the answer is, 'Sorry, we need a bigger name.'
My taste in watching things runs from dramas and low-budget films to high-end fantasy/science fiction.
I suppose I've got a reputation for playing quite extreme characters and making them quite believable.
I'm a huge fan of science fiction and fantasy - not so much horror because I get a bit scared.
I think the best acting is when you allow yourself to be kind of vulnerable in the moment.
I enjoy doing things that involve research because it's part of what I enjoy about acting.
My tragedy is that all I want is a dog, and yet I have been cursed with cats all my life.
It's interesting that in searching for monsters to play you often end up playing leaders.
You don't want to get into doing the same thing, over and over again. I know I don't.
Change the scheme! Alter the mood! Electrify the boys and girls, if you'd be so kind.
