I loved being in Trainspotting and having to dive into the filthiest toilet in Scotland.
It’s not my job to try and alter the director’s style – he’s in charge, and I’ll always give him my trust.
I love acting and don’t find it to be very hard. I recognize when I’ve nailed it, and I can be very proud of myself.
I’m just into making quality stuff if I can, with interesting people and good scripts. But it’s very important that it’s about something and that it says something. Otherwise, I don’t know what the point is, really.
I started watching golf for the first time yesterday. I’m really worried about myself. I was actually enjoying it.
Ultimately, you have to not worry about people thinking you should have played him differently. You’re the one playing the part so it has to be yours.
Then I left school at 16 and worked in Perth Repertory Theatre, which was quite nearby where I lived. And I worked there for about six or seven months, as part of the stage crew.
I was born in ’71, so I remember bits of glam rock on ‘Top of the Pops’ toward the late ’70s, but I had no idea what kind of world it was. I didn’t like the music, either.
I trained in the theatre and I love the theatre. I get such a thrill seeing anything in the theatre.
Mainly I was able to perform with music – I played the French horn, I would sing, and I was a drummer in the pipe band. So I think it was a way to show off.
People are incredibly rude about it sometimes. Like, ‘What? You’re married?’ Strange reaction to have. Proves what people’s ideas about marriage are. ‘We’re having a baby.’ ‘What?’ As if it’s the end of the world. Of course, it’s the start of a brilliant world.
Once you’ve agreed the script, you must be willing to go as far as it needs to go on set.
I was determined to make working with UNICEF not just something that I did on the trip but something I’d do for the rest of my life.
I am so honoured to have been given this opportunity to become an Ambassador. It’s a new and different venture for me and one that I know will widen my wider perspective on life. I’m in a position to use the recognition from my work to do something really positive for children.
UNICEF is successfully giving children and young people all over the world opportunities and hope. Just like the ones we met on the Long Way Down – protecting them from exploitation and giving them chances in life.
No, I’m putting it away, trying to buy a house for my family. The goal is to use the money to move into a big house, so my daughter can have a garden.
Giving kids whatever they ask for is disastrous parenting. There’s no sense of something earned. I’m sorry, but when you’re 12, you don’t need a new cell phone every few months just because a new one comes out.
At school there was no acting to be had other than school plays which I did now and again.
I’m not really attracted to action sequences, because my experience is that it’s quite a slow process to shoot them, and often we’re not involved as actors.
There are people who are younger than I who are more uptight than I am. It’s not necessarily an age thing. I mean nobody is offering me 20-year old leads any more.
I hate the word celebrity. I’m not a celebrity, I’m an actor.