It's always appealing to play a character that has to overcome himself as well as an obstacle. It makes the drama so much deeper.
I have been fortunate to be able to have a career playing comedy and drama. And it's awfully hard - it's like apples and pears to compare the two.
Novels often have leisurely openings; a TV drama needs an arresting opening.
I see the difficulty of kids in going to university, the difficulty of kids in schools getting arts education, so that the arts and drama and the creative arts are extracurricular. They aren't: they are at the centre, and they are the equipment we so desperately need in the world.
Drama assumes an order. If only so that it might have - by disrupting that order - a way of surprising.
When the drama attains a characterization which makes the play a revelation of human conduct and a dialogue which characterizes yet pleases for itself, we reach dramatic literature.
They're the best critics. Workshops are good, and drama teachers are fine, but the best is the audience. And even better if they're paying!
I remember, when I was a teenager, 'Pride And Prejudice' came out. We hadn't had a period drama for ages, and were all glued to it, and for the next three years, Jane Austen series were being made.
Beethoven had a great look. It was very much about the drama of appearance.
Playing athletics, playing a lot of different sports, going to drama school... I was one of those kids who wanted to do everything, so I ended up being pretty average at everything.
Drama or comedy programming is still the surest way for advertisers to reach a mass audience. Once that changes, all bets are off.
I went to an ordinary primary school, and then I started performing in a show called 'Billy Elliot' on the West End, and that was sort of my drama school.
I wasn't originally taking drama, but the drama teacher asked me to audition for Bye, Bye Birdie. I did and got the lead role. Initially I was kind of scared, but once I did it I got bitten by the bug and loved it.
Drama is life with the dull bits cut out.
I went to drama school. I'm classically trained; I studied Shakespeare, blah blah blah. But I always preferred to do Oscar Wilde, or Shakespeare's comedies over his dramas.
I was a late bloomer. I tried out for the football team, and I got locked off the field. That's how I wound up in drama.
'Blueprint 3' is made up of songs, but it's also a commentary on the idea that in order for rap to survive, we have to stretch out the drama. We have to stretch out the audience. It can't be this narrow - we have to stretch out the point of view.
I would love to work in a Bollywood film as there is so much drama and colour in the films there.
In terms of script, Bollywood should learn from South Indian scripts. Not talking about the fights and action, I am talking about the drama bit.
I've just made a cancer drama, called 'Now Is Good,' directed by Ol Parker and starring Dakota Fanning. We filmed in Brighton and it's about a girl dying of leukemia, although it's not as depressing as it sounds.