“You’re an actor who’s Irish, not an Irish actor. And you shouldn’t be limited by your extraction.”

I’d probably have been wealthier if I had stayed with law, but pretty miserable doing it.

I’m interested in pressure, I’m interested in duress. All the great works of art, or film or literature, in my opinion, have elements of those in them.

Having started out in theatre, I feel an impulse to do it as much as I can.

I will always love film, the romance of film, sitting in the darkened room with strangers and watching a story for two hours – that will always remain and never be eroded by television.

You need to be as clean of a slate as you can be, as an actor. You have to try to be open to every experience.

That’s what acting is about, Funny wigs and voices, that’s what we do.

I loved The Fall; I was kind of obsessed with that show.

Two weeks ago we couldn’t pronounce your name, but you were in the lead in a film that made millions, so we’re sending you all these scripts.

I like the little bit of distance that London affords me and I like living in a world capital. I like having the culture at my fingertips.

I’ve always felt kind of safe on stage, protected. I’ve talked to other performers about this and they feel the same things, particularly in the live arena. I never get nervous going on stage to do a play. Doing film or television I’ll have more butterflies.

And once you’re unafraid with death, I think your capacity for violence is immediately increased. Once you’re unafraid of death, you are a very, very dangerous adversary.

I really feel actors should try and do as much diverse work as possible to try and keep it interesting.

It’s obvious that if you’re going to play a character you need to amass information about that person and about their environment or their era that they’re in and use as little or as much as necessary

I don’t think they’d ever make a movie about Chuck Baker but I’d love to play Chuck Baker

I like being at home with my music and my books. I’ve done all the partying, I’ve done enough partying for four or five people as a young fella. But now I like the quiet life.

From a very young age I had an ambition to be a musician, and to do that professionally. That’s what I pursued until I was about 20, playing in bands that were taken pretty seriously at that stage.

Nothing has prepared sharks, squid, krill and other sea creatures for industrial-scale extraction that destroys entire ecosystems while targeting a few species.

Whether the family of the Clarkes were of Norman extraction cannot be easily ascertained.