Quotes

I'm a factory-floor actor. I learn the lines, I get there on time. I don't sit around with other actors and talk about the pain and the magic of acting. I'd rather just go down the pub. That's where the real magic happens. That's often where the ideas take flight. Very underrated, the pub, in terms of the history of creativity.

'I work hard and I party hard. When I go to work, I know what I am doing and I do it to the best of my abilities. When I party, I take exactly the same rule book with me. Except I might turn up later and outstay my welcome. I really don't know why that interests anybody, given that most of the population behaves in exactly the same way.

Every time the Tories get a bit of power they rip off all the things I love. The mining industry. Milk.

[on whether he has reservations about Shakepeare's genius] I'm a British actor, so of course you suckle on the milk of William Shakespeare from the moment that you decide to act. But no, I'll say the body of evidence to prove that William Shakespeare from Stratford wrote all of these works is flimsy.

[on working with a stellar cast in Anonymous (2011)] You'd think that a cast of that stature would be intimidating, and it was quite the opposite. I felt so safe. And we all know each other. We know what it is to be underpaid and worked to the bone. So it was just a luxury from beginning to end.

Notting Hill (1999) was at once a set of wings and a ball and chain.