You would be surprised how many directors don't know what they want. They might not know what they want until they see it, they might know what they ….

That's the imagination that happens in the theater. That imagination is translated in film by the film magicians and all the technology..

I suspect the base that I'm working from is not particularly one of inquiry, but of memory of what I did last time..

As for the clarity of the 48 frames, I've heard people say that it looks odd, it's too demanding, there's too much information, you don't know where ….

I headed out to have a breather at the stage door, dressed in my tramp costume. I had my bowler hat between my feet and there were passers-by, and on….

Try and understand what part you have to play in the world in which you live. There's more to life than you know and it's all happening out there. Di….

I've played an awful lot of people that other people would call villains, but that isn't a very helpful attitude to have if you're about to play them….

It was wrongly assumed that I wished to become some sort of leader among gay activists, whereas in reality I was happier to be a foot soldier..

I think the point to be understood is that we're all different. I've never been a fan of theories of acting. I didn't go to drama school, so I was ne….

That was the big effect Lord of the Rings had on me. It was discovering New Zealand. And even more precious were the people- not at all like the Aust….

Journalists often ask me: "Aren't you sorry that after all the work you've done, you're best known as Magneto and Gandalf?" But that's what I've alwa….

Elijah looks angelic but his beauty of spirit is what makes his Frodo leap out of the screen. Unalloyed goodness is one of the most difficult attribu….

I’ve often thought the Bible should have a disclaimer in the front saying this is fiction..

I think if I were asked to do as many as fifty takes, I would assume the director had no idea what he wanted, and was just hoping, eventually, to see….

[There's] nothing special about an actor's imagination, except that he uses it a lot..

All other areas of my life, I'm hopeless. I can't even be certain how to boil an egg..

I love the Broadway audiences, who relish live drama and don't hesitate to display their enthusiasm..

I'm cheaper than Anthony Hopkins. The other actors they asked to play Gandalf wouldn't go to New Zealand on that money for that length of time. I tho….

My memory of 3D movies is Fernando Lamas in a swashbuckling movie. And I suppose it had been the fifties, in which swords came out at you, bullets ca….

If you've got Mystique as your girlfriend the fun you could have in bed - I've just imagined X-Men 3 might open with me in bed with Patrick Stewart..

I was brought up in industrial south Lancashire, down the cobbled road from where LS Lowry (1887-1976) lived and painted..