Quotes

I hate that term, "Method". It's definitely been given to me over the years, but I don't know if it's true. My belief is that every actor's got their own "method", and as long as it works, that's OK.

People like Jim Jarmusch or Spike Jonze make the kind of American cinema that really interests me. And working with them has, so far, been the only thing I haven't been able to do. But other than that I'm perfectly happy with where I am.

I owe my father everything.

Anyone who knows anything about me knows that I am a very patriotic guy, in terms of my Scottishness and my roots.

I'd totally be attracted to a geek girl!

I feel like I'm the luckiest man on the planet.

Most of the time, you find that the smaller the budget, the more the project is about something substantive.

I rant and rave about noise pollution.

My first love is art, and I see a lot of things in an artistic way.

I've really enjoyed my work in television, but the problem for me is the turnover of directors every week.

I love sci-fi because it leads in the imagination, and I always say it has the most intelligent fans in the world.

Bullying is a terrible, terrible thing.

I'm not someone who believes in wasting my vote.

I do tend to divide my childhood into darkness and light, and the first seven years were certainly the darkness.

The quality of TV drama nowadays is getting better and better. They've had to invent a new term for it: 'high-end television.'

Acting, the arts in general, is a magnet for the wounded of society.

Of course, I love chats with various actors about the process and how they do it. To me, if it's not on the camera, if it's not there, it's not worth it. It really just isn't worth it.

The first thing you should know about me is when I was three years old my mother left me and my father. And that was traumatic obviously for my father - he suffered a nervous breakdown at that time in his life.

A lot of Scots have settled in Canada over the years and it's a very easy place for Scots - they understand us, we understand them.

There are a lot of things that make up a performance, a lot of technical things. It isn't always just about pulling it up from the darkest recesses of your mind or your heart. It's your experience and your observation.

Each performance and each film is what it is. It's right and belongs within that moment. You look at it and try to make it fit your particular part of your character and your particular film.

I loved cinema while growing up and, for the longest time, wanted to be a director.

Guys, particularly in the West, go to the gym and train for hours and hours to pick up something that is heavier than them. Why would you want to do that?

People in Scotland appreciate homegrown talent, but it's getting harder and harder to get films made in Britain.

I've always taken my love of children from my father. He was a children magnet. Suddenly, having my first child hit home what my dad went through.

In troubled times the last thing you want to do is to stick your money into a film. It's such a gamble.

I never rehearse. Never! I think it's a waste of time.

I used to be a rabid reader, but now it's scripts or nothing - network television is quite relentless, and you can't drop the ball.

I never go anywhere without my iPod.

The more people know about an actor the less convincing they become. A bit of mystery's a good thing.

It depends who the director is you know, I mean Ken Loach for instance. I've done up to 32 takes with him.

The darker the character, the more interesting.

My wife was a make-up artist, and she's a total product junkie. Our bathroom is packed full of lotions and potions so I end up trying them out.

Acting is a really insular thing.

I'd work with Danny Boyle every day of the week. No matter what he was doing I would do that.

I think you should only wear jewellery if it has a story behind it.

The thing I miss the most about Scotland is the football.

I often have scripts sent to me with allegedly Scottish characters where I end up telling them, 'You're going to have to rethink this whole thing!'

The U.K. and the U.S. are very different countries, and it really shows in the television.

A lot of my work is with children and there's a reason for that, because they really level you.

If there's anything you want to ask your parents, ask them before they go, because once they go, they're gone.

When I look back at it now, my past and the way I grew up, I grew up on communes.

Acting is probably the greatest therapy in the world. You can get a lot stuff out of you on the set so you don't have to take it home with you at night. It's the stuff between the lines, the empty space between those lines which is interesting.

I hate the word 'hippy.'

Hunger's a great spur.

I don't take a great deal of interest in party politics. Social politics interests me a great deal more.

I just don't like the whole Hollywood thing.

Biologically, I'm lucky - an angular face and dark coloring which shows up well on camera.

I'd love to do a Columbo-type detective character in a series.

It took a long time for me to accept I was an actor, a professional actor, and that, actually, I make a living out of this.