Actors From England

"I wasn't a religious boy at all, my conversion came later in 1986, but when I was young I found that people said they enjoyed listening to me read in chapel, and I absolutely loved it. As I grew up, when I became an actor I was asked to read passages for various radio programmes and the like. When I became a Christian, and I read the Bible for the first time as a person of faith - reading something that gave me my worldview and my lens - I found it to be the most extraordinary collection of literature, and it formed my way of looking at the world. I realised that the Bible has shaped Western civilisation, and I thought what better thing can I leave behind me? What about the most important book in the world that's barely read at all, even though it's the world's best seller?"

"I’ve always seen myself as international rather than American, and really as an Anglo-American. That description feels comfortable. I’ve lived here since “76; I’m married to an American and most of my family here are American. But psychologically I have one foot here and one foot there. So it was a real thrill for me to go back to England and to spend time there and catch up."

"Either he’s legally insane or madly in love!’ I pick madly in love – and you can quote me on that."

"I've thought of firing myself multiple times."

"It’s better to be typecast than not cast. When I worked in theatre I played all sorts of roles, everything was open to me- and when working in TV and film initially too."

"Well the work is the work and you just concentrate on the work when you are doing it. But personally I always feel happier in movies, I love making movies. Ever since I can remember I have always wanted to be a movie actor - ever since I first went to the cinema and I looked up and thought "how can I get from here to there?" It has taken a while but I managed it."

"I know a lot of Russian guys and gals. I find in cultures where people are so used to difficulty, that if they don’t have difficulty they’re miserable. So they’re only happy in their struggle. I love their sayings: “Life sucks. But death isn’t that hot either.” So you go, “OK!” That’s the kind of people I like."

"Your initial reading of the book is preparation, in order to get the overall shape and mood, to map the plot, and especially to find the voices of the characters. To do that, like a lot of narrators, I visualise them (often using various character actors from the TV or the movies) to give me a mental cue when reading . Unlike a lot of narrators, I rarely mark up my scripts."

"With regards to pacing… when you are recording day after day, eight hours at a stretch, you need to physically as well as mentally pace yourself, so there is a consistency of energy, and comprehension, and especially characterisation."

"If I made a list of all the things in life I thought were coincidences and then looked back at them, I would see that they weren't coincidences at all."

"It’s hard to evaluate quality as it’s usually always passionate people working with different budgets. So a smaller show may have a more passionate director and production team than someone who is there for a big pay check and a history of good film. I treat it all the same which sounds very diplomatic but is true! Every once and a while you feel a little icky about some gigs but the vast majority of things I’ve been a part of, I’ve been proud of."

"It remains a source of disgust. It has long been an adage that people will shrug and say, "That's business," as though it's OK. You can't say, "Oh well, that's child molestation." You can't shrug and say, "Oh well, that's murder.""

"I'm hopeless. I always manage to get money somehow, so I don't take it seriously enough."

"One thing I do regret is not doing more directing. I have done bits of directing but I do regret not doing more. Ages ago people assumed I would go on and do this, but I don't know why I didn't, but there is something coming up which has a writer attached to it and there has been some trouble in getting it going and I have been given the chance to direct and star in it."

"It's always difficult playing real people, because people have a notion of what they should be or how they should be played."

"It feels unsettling to be walking out and about, and have people look at you with a formed impression even before they get to know you. It’s a bit like being an animal in a zoo."

"there’s just something in my DNA, where I put on a wig and I just turn into these bizarre humans. I do weirdly find it quite fun, playing these offbeat, very disconnected people, who have no sense of the world around them."

"Obviously humans are kind of creatures of habit in a way, and you pick up, even if you’re kind of hanging around a group of people, you kind of start to mimic them or speak like them and end up becoming more similar. So it’s safe to assume that at times, if you’re hanging around on a set where everyone’s talking in this rhythm, or you using that to kind of dialogue a lot, it’s safe to assume that at times it might slightly infiltrate the real world as well. Not negatively hopefully, but it’s kind of one of those things whereby I think hopefully the thing that you take is kind of the knowledge of just what it was like working with those people, the directors, the cast, and playing that character and what it felt like and you’re kind of always learning on this job."

"I think interviews can be fine, it's just there's this terrible fear of coming off wrongly or saying something that gets taken out of context. Because this could make up people's opinions of you."

"If I was going to be sensible and I could replay it, I would say: "Any self-respecting man in 2023 would probably be well advised to avoid a woman who possessed that worldview because she would probably cause him nothing but harm." But what I did say was, you know: "I wouldn't shag that," and all that sort of stuff, which is not right. It's demeaning to her, to Ava, so I'm sorry for demeaning you in that way, however angry I am with you still for doing that, and it demeans me because it's not representative of who I am."

"So you keep trying to cancel away in your state of permanent offence, I've been cancelled already and may well be again, but I don't care one bit, and I will keep defending my right to have an opinion on issues which concern me. Without free speech and the presumption of innocence we are not free. We aren't quite communist Eastern Europe yet. We may very close, but not quite there. It's still worth fighting for. So if you are expecting a grovelling apology, I suggest you don't hold your breath. I won't ever apologise to the mob."

"Just completed my GB News show trial. I mean disciplinary hearing. I think the rules are that I can't speak freely about it. Which is totally on brand. For the home of free speech."

"Remember. It's OK to encourage acid attacks on Nigel Farage. It's OK to wish Boris Johnson died of Covid. It's OK to want white people dead. As long as it's on the @BBC or the propaganda media. It’s not OK to not want to shag someone. We must protect the "broadcast ecology" for Adam Boulton at all costs."

"It's called free speech. I realise that the new woke world is low on laughter and high on offence, but it's still worth trying to find the lighter moments in this joyless new cancel culture which has been created for us."

"It's grim [...] but with it comes an incredible feeling of liberation. You think I can say anything because I'm not going to lose my job, because I've already lost my job. So now I can resist this disgusting religion of wokery. I'm going to resist it with all of my heart."

"My agent was like, "I’ll stand by you, darling ... Get out!""

"[On being expelled from Harrow for having sex at the sixth-form dance with twins] My choice of venue for said escapade could have been better ["Middle of the dance floor on a bar stool"]. My ancient housemaster turned to me and said, "Your penis was visible." Those were our final words."

"Success is standing. Success is getting to the end and not losing my mind."

"[After his Question Time appearance] Suddenly, I was denounced by the whole of showbiz. I thought, Oh, it’ll be alright. But it wasn't. It just got worse and worse."

"Show me a single self-respecting man that would like to climb into bed with that woman ever, ever, who wasn't an incel. That cucked little woman has been fed, spoon-fed, oppression, day after day after day after day. We need powerful, strong amazing women who make great points for themselves. We don’t need this sort of feminist 4.0. They're pathetic and embarrassing. Who'd want to shag that?"

"It's so easy to throw the charge of racism at everybody and it's really starting to get boring now."

"You know, even in 1917 they've done it with a Sikh soldier, which is great. I mean, it's brilliant, but you're suddenly aware. It's like, "there were Sikhs fighting in the this war," and you're like, "OK, you're now diverting me away from a story of what the story is..." It is kind of racist, if there is racism. If you're talking about institutional racism, which is what everyone loves to go on about - which I'm not a believer in, you know - there is something institutionally racist about forcing diversity on people in that way."

"I've encountered racism from black people towards me, when I was working in Kenya for seven months. It’s the way you’re spoken to — racism can be deferential."

"I personally think it's a dreadful idea that Holocaust denial is, you know, a crime in various places because how are you going to give someone an opportunity to air their ridiculous views, without evidence, without giving someone else the opportunity to correct them?"

"First of all, don’t take a pop at Dan Wootton for something I said. That’s not fair. Secondly. I stand by every word of what I said."

"I say, "Can we just get on and not be mean to each other?" But I feel compelled to be mean to the wokies."

"[On his vote in the 2017 general election.] I voted for "Magic Grandpa" Jeremy Corbyn last time, but then I realised he was an anti-semitic old Marxist."

"[Undecided on his vote for then forthcoming 2019 general election because of their "hate-speech laws".] You’re the Conservative Party, the clue's in the word! I would vote for a conservative party, but not this one."

"I should probably say only correct things, but I have a sneaking suspicion if everybody does that, the world’s going to die of boredom. The world needs a fool — not that I think I’m a fool. Though some may disagree."

"The people who went to Eton can't run this country. They have done it. They have tried to do it. This little small group who all went to the same school, in the same class. It doesn't work. So, I feel we need some working-class people, people that have lived a real-life. People in touch with what is going on, in reality, to maybe become into the front now and start to get involved in how this country is run."

"So what's happened to that twat David Cameron, who called it on? Let's be fair, how comes he can scuttle off? He called all this on, yeah, he called it on, where is he? He's in Europe, in Nice, with his trotters up, yeah, where is the geezer? I think he should be held account for it. He should be held account for it. Twat."

"[quoting Charles Bronson] "Tom, what I'm trying to say is, right? What I'm trying to say is, son... Is sometimes, yeah, you've gotta cut a little piece of yourself off, yeah? No matter how much it hurts, in order to grow, yeah? In order to move on. D'you know what I mean? What are you having for your tea?""

"I think Batman is a pretty universal character. I remember him as a child. But I think Christian [Bale] did the best I’ve seen so far, because of that tortured background of loss. The original Batman, they’re not much remembered as a Batman character – they were not used for training [chuckles]. You had to really – there was a darkness and a damagedness about his character that I think they got right with Christian Bale. Especially in the last two. But that doesn’t have anything to do with Ben Affleck. I think he’s willing to take risks. He seems to be."

"I acted like a punk. I was out of order beyond belief. I make no excuses for it."

"The ultimate embodiment of Bruce Wayne. He has exactly the balance of darkness and light that we were looking for."

"I did something particularly heinous that allowed me to wake up. I had to lose something. Sometimes you have to lose something that is worth more to you than your drinking."

"Batman is his hidden, demonic rage-filled side. The creature Batman creates is an absolutely sincere creature and one that he has to control but does so in a very haphazard way. He's capable of enacting violence – and to kill – so he's constantly having to rein himself in."

"Game of Thrones is just tits and dragons."

"In playing the character of Bernard Woolley, I thought, "I guess I've made it. Here am I, from a secondary modern school, playing a classics scholar from Marlborough and Oxford who's going to be head of the Civil Service." Paul Eddington used to correct my pronunciation. I said garij and he said, "What's that word?" I should have said guh-rarrge."

"My understanding is that it derived from an age-old habit: in Nigeria – and elsewhere in Africa – it was common for parents to send their children from the village to a town, to an extended family member or even a stranger, because it was thought that child would have more opportunities. The problems began with people like my parents because it was a foreign country. I think it was seen as a status thing – and there was an element of ‘white being seen as right’. Mostly they wanted us to get an education and learn to speak good English."