In the street, people talk to you about all kinds of things, but by far, the most number of people talk to me about Love, Actually.
BILL NIGHYIn the street, people talk to you about all kinds of things, but by far, the most number of people talk to me about Love, Actually.
BILL NIGHYI’m not an actor who consciously accesses bits of my life, in order to play parts. Obviously, you don’t need to have been a father to play one, otherwise everyone who’s been a father would be able to act.
BILL NIGHYThe phenomenon of vampires has always appealed to me. Everyone kind of likes a vampire story because it almost could be true.
BILL NIGHYI quoted David Hare one of his lines the other day to illuminate whatever point we were trying to make in the conversation, and I said ‘What play was that?’ and he said ‘It was your line, you said it about a hundred and fifty times in The Vertical Hour.’
BILL NIGHYI used to joke that one of the reasons there was a lack of classical work on my CV was because I couldn’t operate in those kinds of trousers. Which is a joke, but it’s actually also true – if I want to appear in public I want to look my best.
BILL NIGHYWith stage, you feel completely like you’re just in a bubble. I love not being able to see anything. I love coming out and I can’t see anything because the lights are so bright and it’s pitch black. That’s ideal for me, that’s when I have the best time.
BILL NIGHYI would like to change everything, but obviously not everything. I’ve been incredibly fortunate. I guess everybody would do this, but I’d go back to my younger self and say, “Lighten up. Take it easy. Relax. Don’t be so anxious about everything.
BILL NIGHYIn one way, an attempt to reproduce the way people actually speak, but it’s not just an attempt at naturalism. It’s stylised and it’s heightened, to great effect. It’s elegant and it’s funny and that’s the way to my heart, frankly.
BILL NIGHYA way of describing performances that I admire is that there is an absence of careerism. It’s a clumsy way of describing it but it sort of does it for me.
BILL NIGHYI got briefly mistaken for someone who might be good in bed, which was very, very good.
BILL NIGHYAs you get older you feel you need to pay more attention to what is around you and relish it. I’m greedy for beauty.
BILL NIGHYYou tell yourself that you’re not auditioning but of course you work like crazy, and you prepare like mad. And you think, “Well, I won’t get that job. But maybe they’ll have another job sometime, and they’ll remember that I was good.”
BILL NIGHYJerry Bruckheimer says that he makes films that he would want to see, and it seems that that coincides with what a lot of people want to see.
BILL NIGHYI have a perfectly average skewed perception of myself. We often don’t know what we’re like.
BILL NIGHYI’ve always slightly worried the kids who play football around my house. They know I’m an actor, but felt sorry for me because they’d never seen anything I’ve done.
BILL NIGHYStanding in front of a fake mountain with fake snow falling and seven girls dressed as Santarettes will stay in my memory.
BILL NIGHY