Is the very dry, sarcastic wit the character has a bit of yourself as well?
Depends who you ask! And how I’m feeling. Yeah, could be. There’s always a bit of yourself. I mean I love all that. Has your process for selecting projects changed? No, because I never had a process. It’s just a series of choices. You hope it’s instinct, but then you can sometimes be polarised about something. Nothing’s ever the full package. Occasionally they might be. What I mean by that is: love to work with Stephan Elliot; do I want to do a Noel Coward again? Love to work with Stephan Elliot; I’ve just finished a film, not now, thank you. The pieces can shift around. Most of it is a gut reaction on reading. I try to just treat it as a bit of literature, not imagine what it’s like on screen, not to try myself out on it, if you like, let it be what it is. If that hooks me, then I go back and have another look. Sometimes you know in 10 pages – forget it. Actually that’s usually! It seems you have gone from playing the first lover roles to father roles, like in Mamma Mia… That’s life
