I never planned to be an actor. It turned out I could make a living doing it.
I know that some actors and directors like to have intensity on set. I don't, particularly. Certainly, if they want that, that's fine, but I can't work like that.
Part of the work is determining through what instrument you are playing. Actors are physical, olympian storytellers and we should be able to create entire landscapes with nothing.
The heat around young actors burns out. Natural ability and magnetism only get you so far. The rest is hard work.
Fifteen years before I became a screen actor, I was in the theatre. A lot of my work was comedy, which I loved doing. It's harder.
We can compare classical chess and rapid chess with theatre and cinema - some actors don't like the latter and prefer to work in the theatre.
I only want to work with actors that really get it and make it work. I didn't want it to be a star-driven thing anymore.
Growing up, Paul Newman seemed like the ultimate manly actor. And then, I got to work with him and we became friends, so that was nice.
Normally, an actress has to work to bring out her male side. In our case, the dynamic is reversed. The actor playing her modelled himself on Sharon Stone.
I got better as an actor, and still I'm getting better. That's only been possible because there's always been work.
Throughout Ireland, there's a brilliant community of filmmakers and actors, and I guess there was always a lure to do some work in the place where I come from.
Fortunately and unfortunately, people don't see me as a character actor. They see me as a leading man or nothing, which makes it really hard to get work.
Next year, if no one gives me any work, that's fine. I'm not going to do well anyway. I'm not an actor, I'm just exploiting this industry.
Don't pretend to know everything. I've been blessed to work with a lot of veteran actors, and I soak up lessons from them like a sponge.
Film work can be very interesting, but it also can be awfully boring because who creates the film? The actors? No. It is the director. It's his piece of work.
I don't really like to work with actors that work a lot and are very well established already. In a way, I like to nurture talent and have it burst on the scene.
The minute you start making calculations about what people will think of you as a person based on your work as an actor, you're on the road to becoming a bad one.
For me, making the show work was getting belly laughs - like most variety artists. But the straight actor believes you fix your performance in rehearsal and that's it.
For an actor working in television or film, I think it's important to understand how the medium works - how the camera and lenses work and how the sound and the editing works.
I don't like waiting around for work, and sometimes as an actor you're forced into that position, so that's sort of how I got into writing, producing and directing.
I'm constantly intimidated by Shakespeare's work. Trying to decipher what he's saying and holding on to that thought - not just as an actor, but as a human being - is a rigour.
