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 used to do school plays. I never really took any acting classes. I'm just a natural ham, I guess.

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.

I was one of the only ones there interested in acting. You find when you're doing school plays that a lot of people there were on punishment, or something.

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 used to spend my nights oversewing dresses for a local dressmaker in order to pay for my school equipment.