I guess I'm the last of the Cockneys.
In England, I was a Cockney actor. In America, I was an actor.
It was great to play an ex-marine cockney thug. All my roles are as different as the colours of the rainbow.
I'm every bourgeois nightmare - a Cockney with intelligence and a million dollars.
The Crafty Cockney had a picture of the owner dressed up as a copper, so I brought it home, wore it on TV and the name just stuck.
Lots of middle class people are running around pretending to be Cockney.
I actually had a cockney accent before I went to drama school. It's softened up a bit.
Adele's like a beacon of honesty. Doesn't compromise, goes to America and she's still the same sweary cockney.
One of the main things about Cockney is, you speak at twice the speed as Americans. Americans speak very slow.
I just wanted to be an ordinary, middle-class person. When I was at Cambridge, I made great efforts to lose the last remnants of my Cockney accent.
I don't want to say I'll never play someone with a cockney accent, but I think I would be irritated by me doing it.
There are lots of actors who are posh and stick with that, and there are lots of actors who are cockney, and that's what they do. That's fine, but I don't think that could be said about me.
I love my accent, I thought it was useful in Gone In 60 Seconds because the standard villain is upper class or Cockney. My Northern accent would be an odd clash opposite Nic Cage.
Cockney: We've got a bloomin' heiress in our midst. Will you be needing a butler, Eliza? Eliza Doolittle: Well you won't do.
Christine Vole: [as the Cockney Woman] I'll give ya somethin' to dream about, Mister. *Wanna kiss me, ducky?*
My parents went through the dictionary looking for a beautiful name, nearly called me Banyan, flicked on a few pages and came to China, which is cockney rhyming slang for mate.
From Dickens's cockneys to Salinger's phonies, from Kerouac's beatniks to Cheech and Chong's freaks, and on to hip hop's homies, dialect has always been used as a way for generations to distinguish themselves.
I grew up with Jilly and Tamsin driving Volvos. But I wasn't one of them... I always felt more comfortable with Cockney and working-class people. My heroes were the Beatles and people like Michael Caine.
I'd lose that smile if I were you." I jingle the car keys in his face. "Your life is in my hands, " My imitation of his cockney accent is actually spot-on, I let myself bask in it,
People say I've 'retained' my Cockney accent. I can do any accent, but I wanted other working-class boys to know that they could become actors.
Signor Adolfo Pirelli: Mr.Todd? Sweeney Todd: Signor Pirelli. Signor Adolfo Pirelli: [reverting to a Cockney accent] Call me Davy. Davy Collins is the name when it isn't professional.
