I do just genuinely believe Chris Hemsworth is a 6’3, more muscular version of me. And more handsome, but I try.
When I was in high school, I was a bad singer. I mean, all my early acting was musical theater, and my first ever show was ‘Jesus Christ Superstar.’ Everyone’s familiar with it. I played priest number 3 and sang so out of tune that it’s not even funny.
I always try to be true to who I am and just be myself.
I don’t go to royal parties or play polo on horseback. No, I don’t hang out with the posh crowd, if that makes sense.
I used to spend a lot of time at football training, but that time was later spent in amateur acting classes and my local youth theatre, in plays at school and after-school clubs. That filled the void.
I have to prove myself in a lot of ways – as an actor, as a person, as someone who can handle pressure.
Get yourself into every audition that you can. Even in those for smaller roles, you’ll never know when someone may recommend you for a bigger one.
I come from the bottom of the ladder. I’m from Norwich. Not many people seem to know about it.
One of the first pieces of advice I was ever given, on my first job was, ‘You should always buy something to treat yourself to say, ‘Well done for getting the job!”
I keep in touch with what’s real.
I’m very English. I’m white. I mean, I’m so pale. With spray tans they start peeling and start getting really dirty looking.
I’m somewhat of a perfectionist, I think, and I strive for perfection.
Johnny Depp gave me the best advice. He said, ‘Keep your feet on the ground. Stay grounded. Remember where you came from.’
I’m open to all the elements, I’m definitely ready to take anything on. But I don’t want to jump too far into the deep end.
I think it’s every actor’s dream to play a character that’s really odd, and you know no one wants to play himself.
I’ve lived with boys and girls, and I find that boys are generally cleaner than girls. Generally! This is a big generalization!
My parents don’t have any showbusiness links. They are so far away from it.
A famous actor told me once – I don’t want to name names, I hate that sort of thing – but I was at his house and he said, ‘Are you on Twitter?’ I said, ‘Yes, I am.’ And he said, ‘There’ll be one day when you’ll have, like, five friends. And in the same day it’ll go to five thousand.’
Chris Hemsworth is like my bromance. Seriously, I think I really inherited one of my best friends now. He doesn’t know this yet, but I’m going to stalk him if he doesn’t.
L.A. is my office. I come here for work and work only.
Going through the ranks and all the training you do as an actor, you hope you’re going to make it. But there’s a part of you that’s got to be realistic and say: ‘Look, it might not happen to me.’
I purposefully did not want to watch anything I’ve done so far; I actually don’t like looking at my face, so I don’t like watching myself on the screen. It’s an insecurity thing I have.
I quite like the element of surprise, and as much as I have my ideas, I always appreciate ideas that come from other people as well, and I love the mystery of not knowing.
In England, when we’re at drama school, we spend a lot of time learning the craft from playwrights and stage actors, who are very well trained in the basics of acting because they need to get it right the first time – you can’t have second or third takes when you’re in front of a live audience, unlike in film.
One of the first pieces of advice I was ever given, on my first job was, you should always buy something to treat yourself to say well done for getting the job! However I’ve not followed on that through yet… I’ve always wanted a tattoo, something to mark my experience.
There will be times when you just can’t seem to land an acting job, and you feel like giving up. Don’t! The only way to realise that dream is to keep working hard for it.
