I'm not the kind of person who tries to be cool or trendy, I'm definitely an individual.

I've never tried to reach a certain demographic of an audience or try to say: OK, now I'm going to do this type of film to transition myself into more adult roles. Or a romantic hero. Or whatever it may be.

At first I thought I would have to put on an English accent and try a sort of affected Shakespeare thing.

I'm not a big dreamer. I never have been. I remember fragments of my dream, and I try to take a traditional sort of approach to researching this project and doing preparation for it.

I lived in Hollywood and, ironically, I didn't know you could just go out and get an agent and go on auditions and try and become an actor, I thought it was like a Masonic thing, like a blood line you had to belong to – until I was 13. Then I realised what you had to do. It is the one thing I know I want to do for the rest of my life.