I took acting classes in college and once I graduated I decided to give acting a shot when I couldn't really think of anything else to do. It took me a couple of years to get an agent and my first big break was The Fanelli Boys which was a sitcom on NBC. Then I did a few television movies.

A lot of people just go to movies that feed into their preexisting and not so noble needs and desires: They just go to action pictures and things like that.

I was a very interested arts student I was always into that part of school and when I got into high school I went into architectural drafting. It gave me an understanding of how to build things and it's really helped me put things in perspective. With my music and my movies to me it's all art.

Even today in our progressive times in most movies that come out the men have to have biceps and the women have to be thin or something.

I mean movies in general tend to sort of portray time space and identity as these very solid things. Time moves forward. Space is what it is. You are you and you're always you.

It's something I never dreamed I'd be doing making movies.

The thing about the UK is we don't really make that many great movies.

I loved old black and white movies especially the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers musicals. I loved everything about them - the songs the music the romance and the spectacle. They were real class and I knew that I wanted to be in that world.

I like to think the movies that I've picked have something worthwhile to say. Something relevant.

I grew up when I was 15 when I had my first opportunity in movies. I watched every great movie for a year and a half and since then I've asked myself how I can emulate such artistry. That's really my motivation. I want to do something as good as my heroes have done.

I didn't know what types of movies I wanted to do. I want to do things that are different. I want to take my time with each role.

People wrestle sometimes making movies and I think that conflict is a very essential thing. I think a lot of very happy productions have produced a lot of very banal movies.

I've done movies with a sword before. But I haven't really been given the full responsibility of something like a Ridley Scott film.

Yeah I mean the material directors the other cast and if you think you can do something with the character then you do it and go from there. I am looking forward to doing some smaller movies.

When we shoot 24 there are so many things I have to worry about from the script to technical things to my performance that I don't have a second to be bored or take anything for granted. We produce 24 hours of film a season which is like making 12 movies.

I do like escapism. I like going to the movies on a Friday night and seeing something fun.

There are a lot of things that come to bear on movies now that I don't think are good for movies. They're trying to appeal to the biggest demographic and when they do that you sometimes flatten out.

I'll probably pursue doing more movies but not horror or movies with killers in them. I'll try to stick to happy movies. I want to act and direct like Jodie Foster. I admire her because she went to college and she's still doing the same thing.

I would do anything for a part nearly anything. Being in movies doesn't mean being pretty.

I like action movies even though I think action movies are kind of derided now. But there is something extraordinary about action movies which is absolutely linked to the invention of cinema and what cinema is and why we love it.

Well I think one of the main things that you have to think about when acting in the movies is to try not to make the acting show.

The nature of the movies is different than it was five years ago and they're all driven by the possibilities of CGI which means you can make anything happen on screen that you can possibly desire.

There are some movies that I would like to forget for the rest of my life - really! But even those movies that I'd like to forget teach me things.

Listen I think movies serve many different purposes from those movies that are frivolous and just an entertainment to movies that just go to exploring the complexities of the human soul. Everything is valid if it's done with honesty and dignity and I actually do both of those types of movies in my career.