Miranda Otto
If there is a book that the script came from you have to read it, you have to see what you can get out of it: mood, back story and things that may not even be in the film. They kick off your imagination and broaden the character, I think.Collection: Imagination
I think you go through a period as a teenager of being quite cool and unaffected by things.Collection: Teen
There's such big pressure on people who are incredibly famous, on those who have people sitting outside their front door and taking photos every time they move.Collection: Famous
It's good to see a man who isn't afraid to live out his masculinity.
I haven't found the experience of being hot very great. It usually means you are about to be overexposed. I would rather be respected.
The whole theatre world deeply attracts me. I love rehearsing and having time to make mistakes and laugh and discover things about yourself and other people - and the energy level is great.
In Australia, it's people from Asian countries who most often recognise me. There are often people just looking at me at the supermarket, like they're shocked to think I would go to the supermarket.
I worry about my sides. I worry where everything goes. I worry that I'm going to be the leak. I give all my scripts back!
England is very interested as well, and other countries if I could speak the languages!
I got into medicine at university, then deferred a year to see. Then I started acting and just never went back to university.
The guys on the stunt team are really fantastic. It's really funny, because for all the aggression they have to display on screen, they're actually really happy, good- natured people.
It is hard sometimes to see how other actors are working when you are working with them.
I'd always had a big thing for the '60s.
I think film likes me better than the theatre does for some reason.
I like working intensely, then going away and thinking about it, working out why it didn't work and then coming back to it. It makes the work richer, I think.
Young actors are serious about their work and don't take any time out from it. I'm very serious about my work; there are probably only two films I've done where I had a really good time.
Every director is completely different.
Everyone says you should get a photo taken of yourself while you're pregnant. I've got a film. It'll be nice for my daughter, too, to look at one day. She was in it.
I'm so fair that I didn't go in the sun as a child. When all my friends were on the beach, I was going to ballet. The teachers there didn't like you going in the sun, so I never did.
Acting is a freelance career... you never stop having to prove yourself and fight for work.
It's a career that's enticing because you go on stage, for example, and people clap. You get that affirmation, but you can't go into acting for that because it's really your own self-belief that's going to get you through.
Some scripts you read and say, 'I've just got to do this' and you find a way of making it work. Some things you turn down because of the impact on family.
You are being hit with tabloid-journalism bi-lines of what you are doing because you have suddenly become a star.
It could be a stupid thing to say, but people should realize that it is easy to get concerned about yourself and to lose contact.
I have plenty to look forward to, I'm sure.
I've made my peace with being in the spotlight, definitely.
Around the time of 'The Lord of the Rings,' it was a shock to me just how big it is to be on that kind of media juggernaut. It was a big thing and the scrutiny was shocking.
Generally, with films, what tends to happen is that a few people get a lot of momentum out of it, and a lot of people don't.
Sitting down for the actor read when you first get together, it's like the Last Supper because you don't know who will be there for the next read.
I love buildings that aren't purpose-built.
Soho House is normally a private-members club, but the Berlin one has a hotel open to the public. Many beautiful rooms in a cool location, and who knows who you'll run into in the lobby!
I guess I find it easy to play uptight characters.
Any time you have intimacy with someone, there is something between them.
I really enjoy playing intelligent characters. I'm more interested in that than just emotional kind of Mum characters.
I think that's the kind of women that people are interested in. They're interested in strong women characters who are stronger than the male characters sometimes, in some ways. That's what's interesting and attractive about women.
When I was working on 'Homeland,' there was a consultant who helped me a lot... I went to Washington and met with my consultant there, and he actually organised a lunch with several people from the Intelligence Committee.
My parents split up when I was young, and they are still good friends. I think it's often projected that these things have to be so acrimonious. It's so often not the case.
When I was younger, people would always say, 'Are you a ballet dancer?' I had that look - one of those skinny kids with my hair in a bun.
Writers would hate me saying this, and I love words, but I have to say that cinema exists, on one level, for the power of the big image and what that image does.
You do remember things that people say in movies. You remember particular lines and things that are funny. But, you also remember really strong images. Images have a way of bypassing your brain and hitting you emotionally.
There are so many things from movies that are remembered, that are just looks on people's faces or incredible vistas or beautiful pictures. That is a very important part of cinema.
I hate being pigeon-holed into anything. To me, the best thing is when the next job comes and is completely different to the one that I just had.
As actors, we are accustomed to moving around, and it's always great to live and work in a city - you feel like you are truly living a life there.
There are some great women's roles in television... so much more interesting than what I was reading in film scripts.
It's a little daunting coming on to work with actors that you respect so much.
Sadly, my German is almost non-existent, although I did a little at school.
I grew up seeing a lot of theatre, and it was theatre that really seduced me into acting - not film or television.
I love the Russians for their verve, their melancholia, their vivacity, their unpredictability, and their humour.
I was researching my family tree, and I was deeply hoping I was going to turn out to be Eastern European, but I'm not.
Yes, I like doing TV. I like the idea of going to work with the same people.