I don’t think I’ve ever been face to face with pure evil, so I don’t think I’ve ever seen it with my own eyes. But I do understand human frailty and I do understand the capacity of people to be intermittently noble and virtuous and fallible.
I try not to make plans. God always laughs at your plans. I’m going to keep the door open, and keep the page blank, and see what gets painted upon it.
The dream is to keep surprising yourself, never mind the audience.
Sometimes love really is just that simple.
Every time you consider a job, you have to check in with your inner compass and say, ‘Does this fit in with how I see what the work is for? Is this going to be something interesting and valuable to contribute to the world?’
It’s always about, somehow, finding a part of myself that is relevant, and then turning the volume up on that particular part. So, I am all of the characters I’ve ever played, and I am none of them at the same time.
I think when the world makes you feel rejected, you bite back.
You look at the greatest villains in human history, the fascists, the autocrats, they all wanted people to kneel before them because they don’t love themselves enough.
An ant has no quarrel with a boot.
My favourite pudding is a toss-up between cheesecake – proper, New York cheesecake – and apple crumble and custard. Custard is very important, or dark chocolate mousse. Tea: probably Earl Grey, splash of milk.
I’m an actor, and part of my joy and my curiosity about the job that I do, is that actors have the privilege of exploring human nature in different ways.
Every villain is a hero in his own mind.
I always thought of running as just dancing forward.
The bit I love is I really love acting, really, and the circus of being a celebrity is something I’m sort of not interested in. I find it strange.
It sounds cliched, but superheroes can be lonely, vain, arrogant and proud. Often they overcome these human frailties for the greater good.
Well, I think there are no villains in this world. There are just misunderstood heroes.
The thing that keeps you grounded is doing the thing you love.
Somehow the past is a safe place to explore our collective cultural neuroses.
I feel as though the cardboard box of my own reality has been flattened and blown open. Now I can see the edge of the world.
When people don’t like themselves very much, they have to make up for it. The classic bully was actually a victim first.