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

Matthew Macfadyen

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" 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. "

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

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

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" 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. "

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

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" 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. "

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" 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. "

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

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

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" 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. "

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" 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. "

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" 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. "

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

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

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

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" I've worried more and more as the years have gone on. The more you're seen to be doing well, the more stress there is. You feel you ought to consider things more, and be more fussy - there's further to fall. All these little worries. "

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" I did four or five years in telly, and by the end of it was drained. I was a bit sick of myself. I didn't feel like an actor anymore. That sounds silly, but when you're doing a play you're using different muscles, and it blew all the cobwebs away. "

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" 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. "

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" 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.' "

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