" "He's an incredible character who's a total t*** in some ways, but you end up feeling very sympathetic towards him," he explains.
Theatre, he says, is his "proper job" and filming is a sabbatical — but he finds theatre terrifying, "to the point where, every time I do a play, I say to myself, at the five minute call when there's no going back: 'Never do this again. This is stupid! Stupid, stupid, stupid! It would be better to work in a shop. This is horrible!'
"I think every actor that goes on stage is a lot closer to never being able to do it again than you might imagine," he concludes. His stage fright tends to wear off after the first few performances, "but you still have some nights when your brain is telling you you're about to forget the next bit".
He relaxes before going on stage by playing music and, somewhat less appealingly, by farting. "It's a breathing thing," he explains. "If you do lots of breathing exercises, you're pushing down with your diaphragm. It does feel like a release, I find, a good old fart before you do anything." "
The Time - Lydia Slater - February 23, 2013
