Scottish men of a certain age have a black response to almost everything as a measure of how sophisticated they are. I have a very long fuse that eventually explodes after building up a nice head of steam, although it’s only happened three times – usually at work when someone takes me for granted.
I love Hugh Laurie, but I don’t want to be a guy who goes to work every day for nine months of the year in a corner of Burbank. I really don’t. I like doing a bit here and a bit there and strange things, and I think that’s held me back.
I can’t imagine I’ll be the new George Clooney. That’s not really on the cards.
I don’t have any expectations of anything.
The British film industry has always tried to sell itself as something rather sophisticated. It’s almost as if it thinks it is by royal command. It has always tried to claim the high ground, not only over Hollywood but over the whole of humanity!
Drawing is the only thing I’ve found in which I can lose myself completely. I love it. It started as something that relaxed me, but now it’s a struggle because I’m pushing myself. The day-to-day sketching is fraught.
The higher your profile, the more people want you.
I’m fascinated by fire. When I was four, I wore an American fireman’s hat all the time, and I still have one in my office today. Glasgow used to be called ‘Tinderbox City;’ there were always fires, people getting killed.
I don’t think I would have been great in the 17th century. I would have enjoyed the frocks, and certainly some of the food would have been appealing, but the disease and hygiene would have worried me.
I find the closer you get to people, the harder it is to satirise them.
I hate the Internet. It’s full of rubbish. I’m on it all the time, watching terrible, useless things and ossifying my brain.
STG and the Ramshorn Theatre are a vital part of Glasgow’s rich cultural history. To abandon them now is to abandon not only our past, but our future.
I’m not an extravagant man. The fact that I can have a coffee out whenever I want still makes me feel grateful.
I don’t like parties. There was never a party I was at where I didn’t wish I was somewhere else.
The truth is that I got to Hollywood, and I didn’t know what to do once I got there.
I lived through a golden period where society felt that it was good to help people who didn’t have a great deal of money fulfil their potential.
Even though I am a lifelong ‘Doctor Who’ fan, I’ve not played him since I was nine. I downloaded old scripts and practised those in front of the mirror.
I’m sure if Shakespeare were alive today, he’d be doing classic guitar solos on YouTube.
I was initially rather charmed by David Cameron, but I think he’s revealing himself to be a slightly darker and less charismatic figure than he first appeared. There’s a brutality about him.
Of course I’ve had my moments of wanting to go back to Scotland, and I almost did a couple of times, but other things just came up.
My childhood growing up in that part of Glasgow always sounds like some kind of sub-Catherine Cookson novel of earthy working-class immigrant life, which to some extent it was, but it wasn’t really as colourful that.
I hate restaurants that play music. You come out for a quiet meal, and you’re supposed to put up with all this booming. Why? It’s madness!
I destroyed all my geek stuff because I didn’t want to be a geek, and I regret it to this day. Consumed in the geek bonfire of the vanities was a collection of autographs and letters from Peter Cushing, Spike Milligan and Frankie Howerd, the first Doctor Whos, actual astronauts, and many more.
I always thought it was funny that my grandparents had bought a ticket to New York and ended up in Glasgow.
If I had gone to drama school, I wouldn’t be sitting here now because it would have blanded me out; it would have just turned me into another actor.
I wake up in the morning, and I go, ‘I’m Doctor Who! I’m playing Doctor Who. I’m Doctor Who.’
I can’t imagine I’ll be the new George Clooney. That’s not really in the cards.
I’ve only lost my temper three times in my whole life.
I’ve been really terrible in a lot of things because I learned by making mistakes. That makes you a different kind of actor, because you have to figure out for yourself what you do.
Comic-Con is so legendary, so a great thrill to be invited along.
I failed the audition to get into drama school.
I’ve always been interested in the idea of people who fell through the cracks.
My Italian granny and my mother made great spaghetti, but it wasn’t a kind of southern Italian, Godfather-esque kind of thing – it was a wonderful, big mixing pot of all kinds of people – when you came home from school and your mum wasn’t in, there were lots of people you could go to.
Every viewer who ever turned on ‘Doctor Who’ has taken him into his heart. He belongs to all of us.
I haven’t found anything to complain about. But being Scottish, it won’t be long.
It was great being brought up in a Glasgow working-class tenement. It wasn’t miserable, and it wasn’t poverty stricken. It felt very safe, full of delights.
The only time I’ve tried to make plans, the cosmic sledgehammer has intervened and something else has happened. You just have to wait and see what comes your way, so that’s what I do.
Pages: 1 2
