There is a dark side in all of us. And for us 'bad' people, the bad side dominates. I think there is a great sadness in villains, and I have tried to put that across. We cannot stop ourselves doing what we are doing.

Before 'Lord of the Rings,' some people would have just classed Peter Jackson as a horror director. But there is a mind there.

The thing I have always tried to do is surprise people: to present them with something they didn't expect.

Every actor has to make terrible films from time to time, but the trick is never to be terrible in them.

I don't play long parts. They must be short parts, but they've got to be parts that mean something, that matter, where people will notice when I'm on the screen, and people will remember the character after they've seen the film.

I think acting is a mixture of instinct, imagination and inventiveness. All you can learn as an actor is basic technique.