There are always certain things that you tap into, your own personal experiences, and I try to base my characters on someone I know or someone I've seen.
I like time ticking the way it is.
Rudeness makes me very angry.
If I get the walk of a character, that helps me find them. So I'm constantly looking at airports and train stations, registering walks.
I'm a mixed race lad from Liverpool. I get to play a lot of hard characters, and some people perceive that's what I'm like, but it's great for me 'cos they're always the most interesting characters.
I was 10, and I played Jim Hawkins in 'Treasure Island' at school, and this great Liverpudlian actor called Andrew Schofield - he was Johnny Rotten in 'Sid And Nancy' - came to watch it, and he had a word with my mum and dad afterwards and told them I should have a go at the Everyman youth theatre. I've never looked back.
