Eoin Macken

I love acting, but I hate being in front of camera - I get really awkward. I hate being the centre of attention.

I was just fascinated with the brain and the mind, and I found psychology engaging for writing about people, and that fed into my interest in cinema.

I don't think I ever really thought I was good-looking.

I think modelling helped me. I was very shy and self-conscious when I went to college, and I think in some ways modelling exacerbates those things - because it's all about you being the centre of attention - but it also helped me travel.

If you could do 'Mario Kart' as a really cool film I'd do that.

When I was a kid, growing up, I used to write a lot of stories.

When you write a book, people legitimise it by actually reading the book and so it's almost okay to write another one.

I go through periods where I feel very confident about stuff but other periods that are insecure... I find doing different stuff removes the responsibility of focussing on one thing.

All I've wanted to do is write. In school I just wanted to be a writer but I was afraid to be a writer because I felt I couldn't. It didn't really feel like my writing was interesting enough, so getting a book published was a huge kick.

Youth is one of the most visceral times that I remember.

I stumbled into acting. My dad, James, was a barrister but he was always very creative and he loved theatre and the arts.

When I left college at 22, I went to LA to study acting after being introduced to an acting coach called Vincent Chase. Later, I got an agent over there.

With acting, you have to put in the groundwork, then maybe you'll get lucky. It's a slog but it's also fun.

In a modelling shoot you are trying to play a character, a role. There are models who are dead, who have no expression whatever. I think you need to use your physicality, your sense of humour and your emotion when you model.

I love the idea of playing a character, to get that chance to be somebody completely different.

I learnt how acting is more about listening to the other person; it is about reaction. You learn to be a foil, and that helped when it came to directing.

A lot of fashion photographers are telling a story with their pictures.

And then modelling, because it pays you really well and you get to travel, I was forced to get used to the idea of standing in front of a camera and having six or seven people watching me and that actually allowed me to loosen up from an acting point of view.

I'd never properly done pilot season in America. I did it for just a couple of weeks, a couple of years ago. Usually, you get pilot scripts and the initial script quality isn't there.

I love auditioning on tape because you have the time and the freedom to work on it, a little bit. A lot of film is slightly dependent on what your composition is and what your lighting is.

Merlin' was awesome, but the costumes would drive you insane. Every day, you'd get into chain mail and wear 30 pounds of that stuff.

When you're in college, you meet somebody that you think is a little bit arrogant and cocky, and you don't like them because they have this attitude about them that seems grating, and then you realize that they have their issues and this whole other side going on.

The fun of that sci-fi and adventure stuff is that it's always somebody who's not believed and is not being trusted. If you saw an alien walk across the street, who are you gonna tell? Who would believe you?

You never know with a new show. It takes awhile for shows to find their feet and for people to connect with it.

I think it's much harder to make dramatic films, and much harder to create a film that's engaging, where you're actually properly looking at real characters and subtleties.