I do tend to divide my childhood into darkness and light, and the first seven years were certainly the darkness.
I think I have a natural, if I can say that, got a kind of natural ability in comedy.
I don’t want to be a luvvie actor. It took a long time for me to accept I was an actor, a professional actor, and that, actually, I make a living out of this.
The more people know about an actor the less convincing they become. A bit of mystery’s a good thing.
Every actor I think has got their own number of takes that they like, you know. Some actors like to go all day, you know on the one scene and some actors want to take two takes. I personally like four.
I owe my father everything.
Each performance and each film is what it is. It’s right and belongs within that moment. You look at it and try to make it fit your particular part of your character and your particular film.
I have a reputation for being an improvisational actor, which is true, but I also know what I’m doing so that if the improvisational strand doesn’t work I can go back to what I know’s already there.
I played a maniac fan who murders a policeman and she did my makeup. I thought anyone interested in me looking like that must have genuinely liked me.
Anyone that knows me knows what I’m about, and I’m very much a British actor, a European actor.
A lot of Scots have settled in Canada over the years and it’s a very easy place for Scots – they understand us, we understand them.
I feel like I’m the luckiest man on the planet.
I think you should only wear jewellery if it has a story behind it.
The thing I miss the most about Scotland is the football.
A lot of the characters I play have problems, they are marginalised, they have serious psychological problems, problems with relationships, with childhood. These are big subjects, big subjects. You can’t balk at work like that. As an actor, that’s as good as it gets.
I’ve always taken my love of children from my father. He was a children magnet. Suddenly, having my first child hit home what my dad went through.
My understanding of zombie movies is people rising from the dead, from their graves, stuff like that, and walking very slowly.
There’s a kind of unwritten rule: Don’t say anything at all, and everything will be fine. It’s a producer’s medium. The directors aren’t there to make any decisions. They’re not going to change anything.
Early days, I was a bit racked, particularly when I did Hitler, for CBS. That was hellish. That stayed with me for quite a long time.
I was 16 when I was in a band, for about 10 minutes. I went off and did acting after that. So it was a wee moment for me when I sang.
So many of my friends, old friends I haven’t seen in years, made their way out there and got lost, then found their way back. That seems believable to me.