“People have an idea that one is in control of a career, a lot more than you really are. You can engineer things to an extent. But you are at the mercy of what comes in across the desk.”

The great thing about Google is that you type in neuro-surgery and somehow you end up with Peter Sellers or watching Frank Sinatra. Google is a great resource.

I like celluloid, I like film, I like the way that when a movie is projected it sort of breathes a little in the gate. That’s the magic of it to me.

My favorite meal would have to be good old-fashioned eggs, over easy, with bacon. Many others, but you can’t beat that on a Sunday morning, especially with a cup of tea.

How do you remember all those lines? By forgetting everything else.

Wanting to be a good actor is not good enough. You must want to be a great actor. You just have to have that.

I still don’t have a publicist. If I’m in a film, you have an obligation to promote it, I’ll do as much as I can.

The industry has changed. Two years ago I could tell a company I’ve got Russell Crowe and that would get the film made. Now they’d ask ‘And who’s the girl?’ Just one famous face isn’t enough any more.

It’s been said that alcoholics are egomaniacs with low self -esteem. It’s the prefect description. Being larger than life and yet your pride is crushed with self- loathing.

But you see, I have played more good guys than I have played villains.

My big love was the Beatles. I was more into music.

My passion and energy get mistaken for anger.

I applaud anything that can take a kid away from a PlayStation or a Gameboy. That is a miracle in itself.

I never told my father I loved him before he died, and I have a lot of issues about that. They’re all swimming around in my head, in my heart, unresolved, and in a way it felt fitting to dedicate the film to him.

Any actor who tells you that they have become the people they play, unless they’re clearly diagnosed as a schizophrenic, is bullshitting you.

People imagine that actors are being offered everything and you are not. So things come in and sometimes there are things that I want and can’t get a meeting on, or go to a different actors.

I like a cheese and pickle. Nice cheese and pickle on a real old-fashioned bread. Ploughman’s lunch.