I'm really enjoying living in Los Angeles. It's a great city to live in. I'm living a very suburban domesticated lifestyle out there - a two bedroomed little bungalow with two cars, and we're just driving around, going to meetings here and there - it's lovely!
Being attractive, it's not something I do consciously. It's incredibly flattering that people think I appeal to women. But that was a gift from my parents.
I'm determined not to lose my name. It's who I am. It has neither aided my progress nor hampered it. It's just who I am.
As long as you understand that you find happiness through family, friends and love, then money is just a nice bonus.
There's a physicality and confidence to Americans; they're very present. That's something I enjoy being around because it rubs off on you.
Actors, to a certain extent, never grow up, you see. It's an extension of being out in the back yard with a stick, only you're being paid to do it. It's borderline madness.
I know there are some actors who are just brilliant at improvising and brilliant at just being in the moment and doing it there and then. I'm not one of those actors.
It's interesting - an actor's research is different to just historian's research. I'm looking for things that I can actually physically use in the movie.
I could do an American accent, if I were immersed in the accent, meaning if I were living back in Los Angeles and rehearsing and auditioning the whole time.
People in America and Hollywood are very good at pronouncing my name, to begin with. Socially, they're very adept at listening to somebody's name and repeating it, cleverly in the first couple of sentences so the name sticks to begin with.
To be honest, I think that I am a bit of a singer, coming from Wales; being Welsh, we are all very proud of our singing heritage.
I know I'm as comfortable doing period as I am contemporary. I suppose we grow up with it in a sense, in the theater. We get to put on costumes and play a lot of period dramas or plays so we're exposed to it a little bit more I think because of our theatrical background.
As an actor, I've always said, half the audience is going to love you, half is going to hate you so just live with it. It's easier that way.
Often in my game as an actor, someone else pays for your travel and there's nothing like being able to lie flat on a flight home from L.A.
Growing up in Wales, there was a lot of fervour about being Welsh. But the more that I travelled, I realised that people aren't always interested in where you're from, but who you are.
On a trip to Cabo San Lucas, I was obsessed with Donna Tartt's 'The Secret History.' We were staying at the Esperanza hotel doing all sorts of lovely things, but I couldn't wait to get back to the book at night.
I didn't work for more than two years. I sat on the couch and waited for work to come in. I got depressed, went into the abyss.
Why do we write novels or make television about real things? It's the human condition and human suffering.
Speed I like. I do love driving and I've had a couple of those experiences where you go to a track and can test cars around the track.
One often doesn't often get to do the same part, over and over again, unless you do a run in the theater.
That's one of the things we love about being an actor. We get to change things up all the time to remain fresh.
Los Angeles gets a very bad rap, the perception, especially by us Brits, is 'Oh, it's so fake,' but it's the antithesis!
Had you met me when I was 18 I was very, very patriotic almost to the point of sounding a little bit bigoted or racist, but then I moved away, came to London, my eyes were opened and I saw the world.
I defy any British actor to deny they've not stood in front of the mirror and said: 'Bond, James Bond.'
I learned certain exercises to help me cope, to get myself in tip-top mental shape to deal with auditions and rejection.
Robert Lindsay is a legend, he can do anything. Sing, dance, make you laugh. I was in awe of him on 'Hornblower.'
A few people have said that I should change my name and the spelling so that people can say it, but I don't want to, I like it the way it is.Collection: Names
Age and treachery will always overcome youth and skills.Collection: Skills
I'm determined not to lose my name. It's who I am. It has neither aided my progress nor hampered it. It's just who I am. My character. My make-up. My culture and heritage is a very rich one. So what if it's difficult for people to pronounce? We all learned how to say Schwarzenegger.Collection: Character
It's really an organic sort of process. You start off with the character on the page. You fall in love with that character and you have to represent that character well and I think it's just an evolution there. Using the accent and speaking the lines with the accent in fact opens the door to who the character really is.Collection: Falling In Love
Television is what we're all very attracted to because that's where the best writing and the best characters are.Collection: Writing
I'm not getting younger, so there's a commitment to the cause that one has to makeCollection: Commitment