Ian McShane

The bad boy: always more fun.

There's only two kinds of actors - good ones and bad ones... and lucky ones and unlucky ones.

Blackbeard is probably the most infamous pirate who ever lived. He's one of those characters for which most of your work is done before you start.

You don't know where life takes you.

Whenever there was a pause on the 'Hercules' set, everybody whipped their Blackberries out of their skirts - 'Are you texting the King of Thrace to tell them we're on our way?'

I'm a child of the Sixties.

I had a bit of a male menopause. It started at the age of 18 and continued until I was 45.

You set paths for yourself, but as you get older, things change.

I had a teacher at school who said, 'We are going to do a play next year, and you're in it.' He said, 'You should try out for the Royal Academy as an actor.' I did and got in. I was 17. My mum wasn't too happy, but it worked out OK.

I've never hankered for any role.

My dad was a football player - a soccer player - for Manchester United, and I loved playing football, but I also happened to be the guy in class who was pretty good at sight reading. My teacher gave me scripts, and I was very comfortable.

I never wanted a life of having a nice house, driving around, settling down.

Acting's boring.

I come from the liberal side of thinking: Better one guilty man should walk free than one innocent man found guilty.

I mean, I'm an actor. I do what comes along.

What you do is, you just do the gig, enjoy, get on with it, and treat the rest as horse doodle.

I don't remember my first two marriages... the details are very sketchy.

You don't particularly want to stay close to your ex-wife. Or why would she be your ex-wife?

Every actor has to love and loathe the character he plays.

When you're doing a medieval show like 'Pillars,' it starts off a bit like a school play. You're all in funny costumes; you've had your coffee, and you say, 'Good morning'. Then you go on set and, if you've got good actors and directors, it takes on a life of its own.

Do you follow American politics? They hate Obama. Hate him. He's a black man. That's what it is: it's racist. This guy is no bleeding-heart liberal. He's a centrist.

If 'Deadwood' had gone on another two years, I wouldn't have got as many movies made.