“Any privacy in public is a hard thing to negotiate.”

Marvel always make it fresh so you can give it your personal twist.

It’s an interesting arc. You start with a character [Doctor Strange] who’s likeable and charming but very arrogant and distant. He’s funny but you can see there are massive holes in his life. It’s a very painful transition and all that he becomes is tested so quickly and violently.

I did a lot of acting at school and university, then I went to drama school. It was quite a normal route.

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.

Landing the role of Stephen Hawking was the most positively surprising thing that has happened to me.

I drive a motorbike, so there is the whiff of the grim reaper round every corner, especially in London.

I’ve always wanted to play a spy, because it is the ultimate acting exercise. You are never what you seem.

I tell my wife all my secrets.

There’s a heroic amount of effort that goes into making him [Doctor Strange] a superhero by the end of the film.

I was brought up in a world of privilege.

I’m interested in art for all. I don’t want it to be only the sons and daughters of Tory MPs who get to see my plays.

I had a real yearning to make use of the opportunities I had at school. When I heard about the gap year of teaching English at a Tibetan monastery, I knew I had to do something about it really quickly, otherwise it was going to get allocated.

Live a life less ordinary.

Maybe it’s because I was an only child, but I’ve always wanted kids.

That’s something I have to work on: to separate what really matters, to conserve energy by not worrying about what other people think.

I’ve said for quite a long time I’d like him to have a different haircut. I quite like my hair being short. You know, we’ve been away two years, let’s f*** around with his outfit, let’s f*** around with his haircut, let’s do something different.

Writing a description for this thing for general audiences is bloody hard. There’s nothing to relate it to.

Farewell, ole Maser, don’t think hard of me, I’m going on to Canada, where all the slaves are free.

I love life. But it is hard and I have so much, so very much to learn.

How lucky am I to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.

I’m a hard guy to live with. I’m like a caged animal. I’m up all night walking around the living room. It’s hard for me to come down from what I do.

You don’t have to swing hard to hit a home run. If you got the timing, it’ll go.

I know I’m a good professional, I know that no one’s harder on me than myself and that’s never going to change, under any circumstances.

It’s what I learn from the great actors that I work with. Stillness. That’s all and that’s the hardest thing.