Sean Bean
Sometimes all you need is a big leap of faith.Collection: Faith
006 was such an interesting character and the film really explored his friendship with Bond and how it all went wrong, so it was a very personal journey for both characters.Collection: Friendship
It would probably surprise people to know that I'm interested in wildlife. I read a lot of poetry, too.Collection: Poetry
I put quite a few trees in last autumn. A lot of silver birch and a couple of native trees - just generally doing gardening, putting plants in and hedges in. It takes quite a lot of time and I love it.Collection: Gardening
When I first started shooting 'Sharpe,' back in the early 1990s, I'd kiss my two elder daughters goodbye at the end of August - Evie wasn't even born then - and I wouldn't see them again until Christmas. That was tough. They were hard times.Collection: Christmas
Lord of the Rings was something I always wanted to do. I read the book when I was about 25, and I was always hoping if it was ever made into a feature film that I would be involved in some way. And then I finally got it, and I was over the moon. It was fantastic news.
Sharpe is my favorite role of all that I've played. He's a very complex character. He knows that he's a good soldier, but he will always have to fight the prejudice of aristocratic officers because of his rough working-class upbringing. On the battlefield, he's full of confidence - but off it, he is unsure, a bit shy and ill at ease.
I don't like broad swords. They're not much fun. A broad sword is just a big chunk of steel, and there's not much finesse in it, not much skill, I don't think anyway.
I like Daniel Craig. I worked with him on 'Sharpe,' one of the very early ones, maybe the second one we did - 'Sharpe's Revenge?' A long, long time ago, and he was good in that then.
A common misperception of me is... that I am a tough, rough northerner, which I suppose I am really. But I'm pretty mild-mannered most of the time. It's the parts that you play I guess. I don't mind it. I'm not a tough guy. I'd like to act as a fair, easy-going, kind man at some point.
For some reason, the parts I play, like Boromir or Ned Stark, have a life online long afterwards. I keep seeing - what do you call them - memes?
Lord of the Rings was just so much enjoyment. It was over about the space of a year that I was filming. It's one of the most enjoyable things I've ever done, so emotional.
It took a while to adapt to life in London, but six months into my course at RADA, I felt very at home.
Of course I believe in love despite four divorces. There is nobody who doesn't believe in love. But marriage - that fits some people but obviously not me.
You don't necessarily equate me with humor!
I don't do much on social media. I don't really want people knowing about my life.
The media portrayal of women is always angled towards looking thinner and skinnier and... that's not good.
Tolkien was quite a religious man, and so is George R.R. Martin. They kind of have this epic quality about them when they write the material.
I used to love wildlife as a kid and being outside in the garden and the woods and the field and that stuff.
I really got my money's worth from colleges in Sheffield and Rotherham because I kept dropping out, and I wasn't sure what I wanted to do at first, like a lot of teenagers.
Listen to people and treat people as you find them. There's an inherent goodness in most people. Don't pre-judge people - that was me Mam's advice anyway.
If you're going to support a football team, do it 100 per cent.
Everyone was very deeply involved in the world of 'The Lord of the Rings'. From the wardrobe department to lighting, all were fascinated with the story. This is something that does not happen usually.
I sort of leave the character at the end of the day. I don't carry anything around with me - no excess baggage or unnecessary thoughts. I think it's too exhausting to do that. To put things into perspective - your work is your work, and your leisure time is something else.
I think everybody's got different methods of working which suit the particular individual. Mine is to sort of play the part, and give 100%, to concentrate and focus on it while I'm actually working, but then leave it behind until the next day.
I think that you always have something left, that you take something of the character with you.
I'm proud of Lord of the Rings. I think it's a once in a lifetime role, and a once in a lifetime film. It was made with so much care and passion and meticulous detail and everybody was so behind it.
If you have a very good concept of your character, you can snap into it.
I had no intention of being an actor. I was quite good at it. I was pretty capable at other things but never any good at anything.
I'd been trying for a while to get parts that weren't just the English bad guy, so it was quite refreshing to be playing someone who was a compassionate, decent guy.
I sometimes find that playing the bad guy, or villains, or psychopaths tend to be much more psychologically rewarding. And you can really push it, you can push the limits, and get away with it.
I'm still Sean that me mates went to school with, not Sean the film star. And that's the way I prefer to be.
My family thought the fascination with acting was just another fad.
There's a wealth of literature out there which, hopefully, will be, you know, exploded in the future, and I personally find it very rewarding to be involved with classic storytelling, and sort of legendary characters.
It's strange coming back to Northern Ireland, but it feels like a home away from home.
I guess when we're young, we all have that fascination with flying.
The thought of being in space, and kind of enclosed, I find would be very claustrophobic. I think I would panic in that situation.
There's something quite satisfying, quite reassuring about seeing a man having to survive.
I love doing just nothing in my free time.
Working in a garden calms me down.
I love to be with my kid in Yorkshire. I love it there.
Anyone who says they are a hard man - they aren't.
I like playing guys with swords and the horses and stuff like that.
George Martin looks like Santa Claus, but he's got a wonderfully disturbed mind.
My mother and father raised their eyebrows at first when I said I wanted to be an actor because I was in this industrial city. My dad had done a bit of boxing on the side, but he was a welder first and foremost. I was 17, and I said, 'I want to be an actor.' They worried it was a waste of time.
You can't follow another actor's performance. You can't be Robert DeNiro, because you're not Robert DeNiro, and, you know, he is.
I'd like to act as a fair, easy-going, kind man at some point.
Football is a passionate game. It excites us.
I miss a lot about England when I'm working away, even the slate grey skies.
I spend a fair chunk of time in Los Angeles, and after about ten days of warmth and unbroken clear skies, you start to yearn for a bit of good old British gloom and rain!