At school, I was a shy lad and still am. But acting gives me licence to be up there, demanding the focus. It's the one time in my life where I don't have to shout to be heard.

There wasn't really one time in my life where I was like, 'I want to be a model!'

I'd been wanting to work with James McAvoy since I was in drama school. I suppose there are parallels in that we're Scottish, we went to the same drama school and share the same agent, but aside from that, he's someone I've looked up to.

Now is the one time in my life I can be 100% selfish. I'm not married; I don't have kids; I can focus on my career.

Really it was the first time in my life that I recognised that acting is, I'm just going to say it, I am an artist, I have to do this, I have to do this.

I'm still fighting for parts - it's not like I'm sitting with a big pile of scripts putting them in a 'yes' and 'no' pile.