I'd only read a bit of the first book. And I just knew about all the media furor over it. But I'd not read books 2 or 3. I'd just read a bit of it. And I'd seen the films.

It wasn't the greatest script in the world, but not many people can say they've played a wicked king in a swashbuckling Arthurian special-effects monster movie.

Restoration I did because I really loved e novel and I like Michael Hoffman, who directed it, but it wasn't a really challenging part for me. I'm not critical of the film: I just don't think I gave a very interesting performance.

The very best thing about doing it is seeing the reaction on kid's faces when you tell them you've done it.

I don't think Alfonso was a big expert on Potter either. He was feeling his way through it more than I was.

A lot of the city boys in London, a lot of the hedge-fund, young city workers at the height of the financial boom were a lot of working-class, brilliantly minded young fellows and women.

I like tourists. I think it's nice to live in a town that people come from all over to visit.

'Naked' propelled me into a whole other league. America started calling. I went over to Los Angeles and met all those people, and I started doing a few American films of various levels of quality.

It's not my ambition to direct lots of films. I think if I direct one film in my whole life, why rush it?

I've been offered TV things over the years, but usually, that's about that I don't want to be away from home for that long, because it's a long time to be away your home country and my family.

I was interested in the idea of celebrity... some very untalented people getting very successful and making a lot of money for not a lot of work, sometimes.

The world is enormously dangerous and scary. I worry very much for my daughter. I'm not sure we're in control any more, and I think the Internet is partly responsible for that.

We didn't need the Internet for Nazi Germany to happen. But I feel like there's this lack of humanity because of it.

Most parts I've played since 'Naked,' I can barely remember who they were, let alone repeat any lines.

It was so boring, and 'Dragonheart' was so unchallenging - there was no research involved or any rehearsal. So I was in my hotel room every night with no English-language TV except 'Beavis and Butt-head' at 10 o'clock every night.

I really like Los Angeles. I like the weather, the openness of it, the beach, the mountains, the desert. I find it inspiring. I get quite a lot of writing done out there.

I got hooked to American news like a great TV season. It plays like fiction. I would come home from work, and I would put it on, and I would stay up until 2 in the morning watching it and get up in the morning and watch it.

'Harry Potter' is very nice because it's very easy to make children happy. All you have to do is have your photograph taken with them.

I like time off. I'm not a workaholic.

When you do something well, this is the best job in the world.

I did 'Basic Instinct 2' because I had a baby about to be born, and the director said we could shoot before the due date.

I'd had a relationship with a French girl, a Japanese girl, an American girl, a Filippina and she was there all the time - a Lancashire girl. I thought: 'It's a Lancashire girl I was looking for. Why didn't I realize it?'

The oddest things happen to me. It goes in seasons. Nothing will happen for a long time, and I miss it, and I remember how these strange coincidences used to happen to me and how amazing it was, how it made me want to believe in something. A year will go by, and then a slew of them will come along, like buses, one after another.

I was a young actor in my 20s, going out in Soho, having a wild time.