Even At Drama School If There Was

I Love Working Fast. I Don't Relish The Director Who Wants To Do 25 To 30 Takes, Or The Actors Who Insist On Doing 25 Or 30 Takes.

When I Look Back On My Career - If That's What It Is - It Looks A Bit Like A Crazy Quilt, And I Think It's Just Really Because, When One Job Has Finished, I've Never Really Been In A Position Where I Had Three Or Four Options.

The Big Stars I Felt A Kinship With Were Never The Romantic Leads. It Wasn't Steve Mcqueen Or Robert Redford - It Was People Like Walter Matthau And Anthony Quinn. My Big Hero Was Tommy Cooper.

I've Worked With Actors Who Treat The First Two Takes Like Rehearsals. And That's Okay. If The Camera Is On You And We're Doing A Scene Where I'm Off Camera, I'm Treating That As A Rehearsal.

I Think, Because Of My Background, Which Is Slightly More Exotic Than The Average British Actor, I Think, I Sort Of Occupied This Little Niche Quite Early On Of Playing The Foreign Guy. It Started Way Back At Drama School, I Played An Eastern European Heavy, I Played The Russian Mobster. And I Have Done All Those Different Ethnic Roles, And I Think It's Partly Because Of My Look, I Think I've Got An Adaptable Sort Of Nondescript Ethnicity, Which You Can't Quite Pin Down, But It's Enough To Kind Of Get A Flavor Of Something.