“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 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.

I genuinely don’t know Julian Assange well. To authenticate an opinion, I really would have to meet him.

I think anyone who works in medicine has superpowers.

Kevin Feige said to me: “I don’t think we’ve ever put an actor through quite as much as this, physically and mentally.” I’ll wear that as a badge of honour. It was endless.

I tend to have a cup of tea, try to stop worrying about what I did wrong, cool down and will the audience back in as soon as possible.

Sherlock [Holmes] is on the side of the angels, but don’t think he’s one of them. He uses similar means, but it seems to be for a better purpose, one would hope.

The more charming person is the person who admits the other person is more charming.

Fame is a weird one. You need to distance yourself from it. People see a value in you that you don’t see yourself.