I'm a big fan of unflinching drama and bold drama. If you shy away from dark subject matters, there's only certain places for TV drama to go. If there are shows that can break through that and be brave, those are the shows that I personally enjoy watching. I try and do work that I would watch.
A lot of the films now are more focused on the visuals than on the actors. I think all directors should go to drama school.
When I decided I wanted to go to drama school, I realized that a lot of the actors whose careers I really admire and whose work I really admire were English and English trained. I felt there was a real vocational feel to work in the U.K.
I look up to Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon. I'm a huge fan of their work. I also like actors who really transform themselves, like Joaquin Phoenix. And I loved Robin Williams growing up. He does comedy and drama so brilliantly.
'Survivor' was, to me, an absolute reaction that the audience was having to the sort of staid nature of narrative drama on television.
Depending on what your interest in theater is, I always recommend working on plays. It's a great way to be introduced to the field, and also a great way to be seen by agents and representation. I'm also a great advocate for studying acting at a drama school or a college.
So many people prefer to live in drama because it's comfortable. It's like someone staying in a bad marriage or relationship - it's actually easier to stay because they know what to expect every day, versus leaving and not knowing what to expect.
Everyone knows what it's like to make the wrong decision for the right reasons. For me, wrong decisions are the heart of drama - a character who's always making the right decisions is boring.
The nice thing about student drama is that you're allowed to get things wrong, because it doesn't mean no one will ever hire you again.
My first novel, 'You Must be Sisters,' was started in Pakistan. I've wrote several novels and a TV drama set or partly-set there.
Original 'Dallas' fans, please come back, because it's the same show 20 years later - same drama.
I was doing a show at the National Youth Theatre, playing an old man. Before that I had played fat clowns and I thought, 'If I want to have the career I would like, I am going to have to lose weight.' I was just starting drama school, and found I was moving around a lot. I also started to eat sensibly. The weight just dropped off.
I spent many years writing and directing in radio drama, so I am comfortable with an audience or a microphone, but I do worry about the blurring of an author's public persona with the work itself. A good 'performer' can make a mediocre book sound strong, and a shy author can leave listeners missing the excellence of his or her writing.
If everyone's just saying what they feel and doing whatever they want, there's no drama in the world. And there's also no truth to it, 'cause that's just not the truth.
I think with drama, at least for me, my process, there's a lot of thought. I do a lot of back story. I listen to a lot of music. I'm very committed to a process when it comes to drama, but with comedy, I think it's really about letting loose.
So the result was that as one approached a political convention for most of the 19th century and for most of the 20th century until the 1960's, part of the drama was the fact that you didn't know ultimately who was going to be the nominee at the end of that convention week.
Comedy is probably a lot harder for me. Maybe it's because I've been doing drama for so long or maybe it's because... you don't want to search for a laugh; you can't try to be funny, you just have to naturally be funny or be in a situation that's funny.
You know, we've got to this place, where you go to a movie for one particular surgical fix. So, it's like, I want the pulse-pounding action, or the insane falling-off-my-seat comedy, or the devastating, heart-breaking drama.
Orlando's a really cool guy. They hired him for 'Lord of the Rings' out of drama school. He's very new at this still and doesn't have a lot of experience. So we were in this together and we've tried to help each other out. We felt very equal which was good.
I tested on a lot of TV shows and films after I finished drama school.
When the time came to make a decision about what do in life, I found myself thinking that acting was the thing I loved to do, so I applied to drama school. And then, I didn't get in - twice.
I think if I had come out of drama school and been an instant Hollywood superstar, I would be taking long, leisurely holidays.
I have never been in, nor have I had any strong particular desire to be in, what is termed a costume drama, but I keep forgetting to think of 'Charles II' as a costume drama.
I think if you turn down the volume on the good comedy, you should not even know if it's a comedy or not. It should look like a drama.
Because I didn't go to drama school, I didn't start in the business with any toolbox apart from enthusiasm and instinct. I'd throw everything at a part and sometimes realise that I had hit my limits.
In acting, you get to that place where it's serene, where you just feel it. I'm glad to be doing the drama because you can kind of take your time more and let a moment live more.
The very rough story is this: Melbourne boy, out of both my parents' houses at a young age, lived with my grandmother, drama teacher twisted me into doing this TV thing that I thought my mates were doing, too.
My roles don't centre around drugs at all! Shadiness is different - it's drama. We're making movies! You've gotta have conflict.
As for acting, I took drama lessons when I was in high school.
This drama between Dean and Ehrlichman took place while I was trying to give the contents to the FBI.
I received an OBE from the Queen, which probably doesn't mean anything in America but is quite nice in England - the Order of the British Empire for services to drama.
You know how you're supposed to choose between playing up your eyes or your lips? I always choose lips. I love the drama.
Reality TV is a lot about drama, but for the first time in a long time, you actually have role models on TV.
We did a lot of that in drama school: intellectualising and maybe justifying your position. 'I am a thinking actor and I have thought this through' - well, just do it. I much prefer the doing aspect.
I went to the Goodman School of Drama in Chicago.
With the opening of the second decade of the twentieth century it seemed that the stage was set for the last act in an unquestioned evolutionary drama.
