Quotes

[on undertaking the title role for the multi-talented Leonardo Da Vinci in Da Vinci's Demons (2013)] The greatest artist of all time. But there was all this other stuff. He could talk people into things. He'd spent his entire life dissecting bodies and it was dissipated into the royal notebooks and never published. The fact that it's an aside to his life is extraordinary. So because he did so much it felt right that he should be played in many different ways.

[ on playing the title role in Da Vinci's Demons (2013)] The greatest artist of all times. He had a big mouth. He could talk people into things. He was a man who obviously wasn't necessarily going to be constrained by the society he was in. And because he did so much, it felt right that he should be played in so many ways to reflect that.

University was a chance to people-watch and to mix with people from all various walks of life, which as an actor is a great experience because you get to observe people.

I went to university in the north of England at University of Birmingham to do an English literature degree, and I knew I could do extracurricular stuff with theater and drama. I started a theater company, called Article 19, and I did it with a bunch of friends. I wrote and directed plays. I had a radio show.

I feel like the experience I gained at university has really helped to inform me as far as who I wanted to become as an actor and what I wanted to do.

In America, celebrities who go to see your show will come backstage and introduce themselves. Meeting Annette Bening and Ethan Hawke that way was amazing, but when Tom Hanks came, it was really special - I've loved him since I first saw him in Big (1988)!

New York is fantastic, and I've done several films in Los Angeles which I really enjoyed, but I don't think that America is the be-all and end-all. I'll follow the good work wherever it may be.

There's a certain aura when a superstar like Brad Pitt walks into a room - I've seen it myself - but it comes from everyone else going, 'Aaaahhh!!' That's what you have to deal with, people looking at you and whispering. That would be the strangest thing, feeling the change as you walk in a room and trying to ignore it. But I think I could cope!

I remember clearly watching The Sooty Show (1968) at a theatre and telling my mum I wanted to be up with the puppets, not in the audience.

Even though Da Vinci was a genius, it's important to remember he was just a man.

I'm quite lucky in that at certain angles I look all right, and at others I don't look so good, which enables me to play some leading roles and some stranger, more 'character'-type parts. I wouldn't say I'm the conventional handsome Hollywood leading man.

I love to run. When the weather's bad, I should get on the treadmill in the basement gym of my apartment building, but I lack the motivation.

Performing on stage is my first love - it's why I wanted to be an actor in the first place - and 'Arcadia' is the highlight of my career so far. I love the intimacy of a live theatre audience - you can really squeeze every last drop out of each scene.

I can jump on to a kitchen worktop from standing, like Tigger. It was something my dad could do, and I copied it from him.

I loved Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton's Inside No. 9 (2014). The way that they constrained each episode to a single location, then tasked themselves with including completely new characters every week, within a single half-hour.

What you don't get necessarily at drama school is a gigantic mix of people. At university, there's people from every social background, and you get to go through that period of being naive and not quite sure who you're going to be.

The thing about Doctor Who (2005) is it's chased around the world, so there's 50 fans hanging out at every location.

I'm just terrible at auditions. I don't know how anyone does it.

I worked in restaurants, bars, record stores; I did anything and everything to pay my way through university and LAMDA.