Richard Madden
My best friend was really cool, and she went to a youth theatre in Paisley, so I thought maybe that's the way to do it. I went along, and I immediately found something I was passionate about and really enjoyed.Collection: Cool
I love doing television; it's such a brilliant way to tell a story over six hours rather over the two hours of doing a movie.
For 'Cinderella,' I did six weeks of those interviews, where you get asked the same eight questions. If you're not capable of doing that gracefully, then don't do it.
I'll keep doing the things I don't know if I'm good enough to do.
There's no background of creativity in my family; there are no actors or musicians.
My school didn't have a drama department. I was one of the lucky four children who got to travel twice a week to another school because our school could only afford one taxi.
Undoubtedly there is a difference between people with money having access to the arts that people from working-class backgrounds don't have, but that's not their fault. I'm not taking anything away from these brilliant actors who are doing great stuff in Hollywood. A lot of them are my friends.
I'd really like to shave my hair off and get a bit more hard-edged.
I've done a few old-style romantic leads now.
You can meet lots of actors who are in their own world and do their own thing, and they have no idea what's going on and they don't know anyone's name around them.
When you're on set with an actor like Derek Jacobi, it's not hard to tell the truth when you're looking in his eyes, and he's so open and creative and ready to play.
I'm not naturally a gifted dancer, and I don't enjoy it.
I jumped off a platform, was supposed to land on a roof and slide down it, but I cleared the roof and landed on my ankle - snapped that to one side.
I didn't really think about wanting to be a prince when I was a kid.
That's a really strange, unique position to be in - royalty is where you have no choice over what your duties are.
I believe in love at first sight and hindsight.
I'm dying to do something sci-fi! I would love to be on a spaceship and firing a laser gun! Something like that would be really awesome. Or something with dinosaurs. Or preferably both at once.
You act at being a man, and before you know it, you are one.
I was always a bit old for my age, then suddenly I'm on set, working alongside the adults, skipping school completely for two years.
I love Lady Stoneheart!
One of the most beautiful things about 'Game of Thrones' is it's told from so many different points of view, and these characters can convince you that what they're doing is right. But they're only showing you a bit of the picture, and when you see it from another character's point of view you may switch allegiances.
I thought 'Game of Thrones' had this challenge in filming, and it's one of those things you think, 'It can't get worse than this,' because it's really cold, and you're in pain, and it's miserable.
I try to live honestly in every aspect of my life, which can make things a bit more complicated, right?
When I was younger, I did a TV show in the U.K. for a couple years, and I learned a lot from that. It taught me a lot about being known amongst your peers and having to deal with a lot of derision from them.
It's nice to have recognition for doing a good job, but at the end of the day, I'm just an actor and I'm doing my job and I'm always trying to get better at doing that job.
Doing jobs that are completely different to the last thing I did pushes me as an actor to change as much as I can. It would be easy for me to stay in a similar vein of characters or jobs, but I'm drawn to challenging myself.
I like clothes and fashion. It's a hobby for me and I really enjoy being part of it, so it's nice when people say: 'He can dress quite well.'
I'm a sci-fi guy. But I like fantasy too.
Google is the enemy. I would tell that to anyone who enjoys any TV show like 'Game of Thrones' to avoid it; it spoils so many storylines.
Typically in 'Game of Thrones,' people who are honest and just and do things for the right reasons tend not to survive.
I'm an actor and my job is to interpret.
When I was younger, I did a TV show in the U.K. for a couple years, and I learned a lot from that. It taught me a lot about being known amongst your peers and having to deal with a lot of derision from them. It's not easy being known as 'the kid from the TV show.' Not in school it's not.
When I'm not working, I like to be comfortable. I do like to dress smart, but comfort is important.
I'd love to do something on Broadway. I'd love to spend some time in New York.
I think it's good for an actor to bounce between stuff on camera and stuff in theatre. If I could do half and half every year I would be a very, very happy man.
I think often I learn the most from other people's mistakes. If I'm in the audience watching an actor and thinking, 'I don't believe you,' I spend the rest of the play working out why I don't believe them.
I love Jon Snow's character.
I was a nervous kid, not great socially.
I can see how child stars can be thrown off-kilter.
I like to try to change things up a bit in the way that actors such as Philip Seymour Hoffman or Michael Fassbender did and do.
Bill Haskell was real.
You have to be delicate with how you can portray characters other people are having a worship over.
When you're not in studios, you don't have any luxuries; you can't control the elements, so you have to put up with those extremes.
I think meeting someone like, meeting Sam Shepard, that was someone who was kind of important for me, because I'd read so much of his work and watched him as an actor since I was a kid, then being on set doing a scene with him and thinking, 'This is really surreal.'
I was at a rough high school where admitting you were an actor didn't go down well.
I have two sisters, so we watched all of the Disney films. I think I still know the lyrics to them all.
We don't really get to see gay characters who are completely open with their sexuality, but it doesn't define who they are.
I try to be outdoors as much as I can.
I always try to pick my parts to be as diverse as I can, and especially when you do 'Game of Thrones' for so many months of the year.
I need to kind of get a job that's going to take me to, like, Hawaii or Rio or something, right? Maybe I need to make better decisions with that.