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" The lovely thing about being an actor is being anonymous, it's never having to explain yourself. And that's what I find interesting about actors or painters I admire. I don't want to know about their lives. "

Matthew Macfadyen

Know

Yourself

Interesting

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" There's always a concern as an actor that you'll be boring unless your character is swinging from a chandelier. "

" I love TV and I love making films and I love doing plays. I feel very lucky to be able to do all three. "

" I'd auditioned for the National Youth Theatre and I didn't get a place and it was terrifying. "

" Nobody's just arrogant. I've met people who are embattled and dismissive, but when you get to know them, you find that they're vulnerable - that that hauteur or standoffishiness is because they're pedaling furiously underneath. "

" I can't throw books away. My wife is always telling me to get rid of some. "

Matthew Macfadyen

Books

Telling

" People like to think that actors are terribly worried about ghosts of other actors in the parts they play. But you just have to get on with it. "

" The security comes, as an actor, in knowing that you're not in control. If you try to control your career, or how people perceive you, you'll make yourself unhappy, because life doesn't work like that. So much is luck. It's much better to let yourself off, to think, 'There's nothing I can do.' "

" I just loved the whole idea of being an actor. "

" I wouldn't want to leave it so long before doing a play again, I get very stolid and sluggish if I do too much telly. "

" It must be odd, being recognizable. I would hate to lose that anonymity. "

" I think it sits quite happily with me, the condition of being an actor. I see some people getting quite eaten up with it, with the insecurities. There are times when I long for continuity and stability, but I also love the idea of not knowing what I'll be doing next - or even if I'm going to work. "

" What's exciting is there's a curtain that divides the audience from this other world. You want to see behind. "

" I have felt some twinges recently, about parts I wanted to play that I may be getting too old and fat to do. 'Hamlet,' for example - maybe that's gone. I would love to play Richard II. "

" My vanity is I'm terribly romantic! But being married is lovely. "

" I think I do have a good eye. It's quite liberating, being in a position to read a script and say, 'No.' It's really the only power you have, as an actor. "

" You'd never play Hamlet if you started worrying about who's played it before you. "

" I don't feel like a romantic lead; I guess I feel more like a character actor. "

" I was quite a shy child. I would get terribly nervous and throw up before my birthday party. And then I would be fine. I feel the same now. I get nervous, then it's fine. "

" Nobody's really unsympathetic, I think. People do good and bad things. If a character's totally unsympathetic, they're not real and I'm not interested. "

" You never know how films are going to do and it is daunting if I think about it. "

" Apart from earning an awful lot of money, why would you go to Hollywood? "

Matthew Macfadyen

Hollywood

You

" I would hate not to do a play every couple of years. I think it's not me. "

" It must be odd, being recognisable. I would hate to lose that anonymity. It happened for a while with 'Spooks.' No one notices me now. "

" The actor in me would always like to be more dashing, or slimmer, or have nicer hair. "

" I think people ought to do what they feel useful at the time. If I do things because I ought to do them, I switch off. "

" Some British actors are snobby about telly, and I don't understand that. "

" As much as I long for a sort of security and consistency sometimes, I do enjoy sort of being busted around. I really don't know what's happening sometimes next week, let alone this year. "

" It's a real skill to be able to publicise yourself. "

" I try to be fussy about the parts I play. I think that's quite prudent, it means you're stretching different muscles, and you're scaring yourself by doing something which is out of your comfort zone. "