George Blagden

I hate not working. It's that lack of purpose. It becomes very easy to lie in until midday.

I've always wanted to explore North America. I drive a motorbike and have always wanted to spend a couple of months exploring the continent on two wheels.

'Empire of the Sun' is one of the films that I often think about. I think it had a profound effect on me when I first watched it as a teenager.

I read pretty much every tweet that's sent to me and often reply.

I love 'Into The Woods.' I auditioned for a couple of productions since being in it at school but haven't been successful.

It's hard when you are trying to ingratiate yourself in a completely foreign world. It takes a long time.

They have a good ethos at Guildhall in that they basically throw loads of different things at you. Their theory is that after you leave, if you use 10 of those 100 things, that's great. The other 90, you might not agree with or might not work for you as an actor. But if you can find 10 that work for you, then ultimately you leave as a better actor.

I went to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and that was amazing. I absolutely loved my three years at Guildhall.

I did school plays, and then, at the age of 18, I applied to drama school in London, and I got in. I've been very lucky that no one so far has stopped me from being able to live my dream - the industry or my parents.

When I was about ten years old, I was brought to London to watch a production of 'The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe.' I think it was at Sadler's Wells in maybe 2000. I watched it because my school was putting on a production of it, and it was the first school play that I was able to audition for a speaking part.

I guess if you have had a good education as opposed to someone who hasn't been to school, you start off on this journey having studied Shakespeare for years and years or studied classics. I suppose why people see this big divide - the boarding school boys getting all the roles - is because they feel like some people have had a head start.

When you start working on screen, a lot of the time it can feel like you're just trying to make sure that you're not bad.

I got makeup tests and hair tests for 'Versailles,' and the main thing they were obsessed with was that my hands were disgusting. I had three years of Irish dirt under my nails. I had to have manicures and everything.

Everyone at drama school called me Musical Boy.

I think there's something nice about singing for a kind of particular purpose.

Modern audiences are so intelligent. They work at such a fast pace that if you don't give enough stimulus at a breakneck speed, they will become disinterested.

Essentially, Louis XIV created exclusivity. If we look at how we live our lives today, many of us are members of clubs or gyms. We search out exclusivity. He created the world of fashion at Versailles.

A lot of people would probably get quite bored watching a series about a king who is powerful and never showed any vulnerability.

Sometimes when you're stood in front of 100 people, delivering a speech with rage and lots of emotion, that can be utterly terrifying. I find that very scary.

The best characters to play are the ones who have deep internal conflict.

The Vikings colonized Britain, and a lot of our modern day towns are named after Viking names that settled these big towns.

As anyone who even remotely knows me, I will eat chicken with some chicken, and maybe more chicken. Chicken done any which way, basically.

Sometimes it's hard, when you start engaging with people on the Internet, to forget that, actually, we really don't know one another... that's something I need to learn a lot more.

To walk into the hall of mirrors of Versailles as Louis XIV and deliver a monologue on your own in an empty hall of mirrors is like no other experience.

I don't know why there is still any barrier between men and women in terms of achievement and success.