I’ve had an unbelievable life. I’ve been very lucky. You do create your own luck too, you know? I never forget where I’m from. Whenever I pass a building site or see somebody digging a ditch, I always think, ‘That’s real work.’
Acting with creatures that aren’t there is kind like acting with an actor who refuses to come out of his trailer. You still have to go on and do the scene.
And the Institute sent me a little film footage of Kinsey himself preparing to do an interview for television to talk about his work, so that was quite valuable for me.
Getting married and settling down isn’t the most important thing in my life.
Every time I see Anthony Hopkins I think that, to some extent, he has just been getting away with it all these years.
I don’t know if I’m a strict parent or a pushover.
Queen’s University flies the flag for the arts in Northern Ireland and beyond.
I will never become a director or a movie producer. I was always looking at picture directing because I didn’t know what to do! You can’t be a movie director without real preparation.
I thought, well of course, Kinsey absolutely adored teaching. He was a wonderful teacher. So these kids really inspired me. So that was a clue I hung onto. He loved young people, he absolutely loved them. And he loved teaching them and trying to help them.
People ask me if I ever feel outside the Hollywood loop, and I never do, because both of us do a lot of theatre, so it’s great for New York and it’s also half-way between Europe and the west coast, so it’s the best of both worlds.
I’m so touched that complete strangers will send me a script asking me to be in their film. That still amazes me – and sometimes for a lot of money too.
I don’t think I’m funny.
It’s funny, but you get to a time in your life when you think you have all the friends you will ever have.
If you make yourself more than just a man, if you devote yourself to an ideal, you become something else entirely.
It is the right to bear arms which is the problem. I think if the Founding Fathers knew what was happening they would be turning in their graves with embarrassment at how that law has been interpreted.
Sitting down to eat in our house is about sharing, you know, talking about the day you’ve had, be it in school or work or whatever, so that’s very important to us.
I do believe at the end of the night when you’re with your family, the character gets hung up on the door like a coat, and is there to be taken on the next morning.
I did, although I didn’t read from page 1 to page 187 but I read chunks of it. I did a little bit of science when I was in the university so I was able to understand the graphs and pie charts and stuff like that. It was extremely dry.
I certainly notice the vitality in Belfast, which wasn’t there in the Seventies. There was a war going on then. Now there are cranes everywhere. There really is a sense of renewal and hope.
I don’t do my own stunts, but I do my own fighting. I don’t consider fighting to be a stunt.