I usually only go to the theatre if I've got mates in it, and it's usually crap. I have told Sam [Mendes] he can't do Shakespeare for a while now, because I don't want to have to go to see it.

Mike Leigh encourages you to choose a person that you know to base your character on. You write a whole list of people that you know and you go through that list in great depth with him. And then he chooses one of those people from your list.

My earliest acting memory is making up a play for my mom and dad called The Lonesome Baby. I have no idea what The Lonesome Baby was about. I just remember the title. But I'm sure it was an epic.

My own singing voice is not very good and I don't think that anybody really sings in their own voice.

Quiet, quiet people become intriguing when they're dramatized.

[Michael Caine, Ewan McGregor and Brenda Blethyn (a 1997 Oscar nominee for Best Actress for] Secrets and Lies ... The Rise and Fall of Little Voice.