“I think playing any iconic role when you’re stepping into big shoes, into the shadow of people who have come before you and you can’t process that.”

New York City is crazy and beautiful and really close to my heart, and I’ve always had dear friends here – family, actually, I would say.

[Season 4 of Sherlock Holmes will be] myopically dark. You’re talking about the end of the universe darkness. You can’t see in front of you and would walk into everything dark.

It’s the same thing, I think, whether it’s breathing or meditation or yoga. And running is a great way of doing it.

Do I like being thought of as attractive? I don’t know anyone on Earth who doesn’t, but I do find it funny. I look in a mirror and I see all the faults I’ve lived with for 35 years and yet people go kind of nuts for certain things about me. It’s not me being humble. I just think it’s weird.

Any irrational fears?no, i’m quite a rationalist. i’m not superstitious, i think life is too full of natural wonders and logical complexities to worry about illogical things.

Do awards change careers? Well, I haven’t heard of many stories where that’s the case. It’s a fun excuse to meet colleagues and celebrate people who’ve done well that year in certain people’s eyes, and it’s nothing more than that.

I’ve been broody since I was 12, but I can’t just get anyone pregnant. It has got to be the right person.

I know he [Julian Assange] is a man of fierce determination, and now living under the strain of house arrest in the Ecuadorean embassy as a “political exile,” as he calls himself.

It’s one of the things that attracted me to the role [Doctor Strange] is the fact that it’s a really widely origin story, I mean this is part of it, but of course there’s the whole chapter before where he’s the neurosurgeon who has the accident. It’s fantastic.

I’ve done a bit of live action before but the fight sequences, the wire work and the physical regime were taken to another level [ in Doctor Strange].

I have actual acting scars.

For brain surgeons it’s particularly difficult to deal with failure. It was fascinating to learn about that whole world.

Metaphorically speaking, it’s easy to bump into one another on the journey from A to B and not even notice. People should take time to notice, enjoy and help each other.

I’ve turned up to costume parties in the wrong costume. I’ve made social faux pas a plenty. I’ve put one foot in front of the other and fallen over.

Looking for happiness is a sure way to sadness, I think. You have to take each moment as it comes.

As an actor, you are aware of how a role can seep into your real life.