Richard McCabe

I went to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art because it was the only drama school the social worker had ever heard of. Luckily, I got in at the first attempt.

Broadway has a lot more razzle-dazzle than the West End. In terms of the everyday work routine, it's not different, but there's a cachet about Broadway that lends itself to more anticipation among audiences.

There's a mythical status to the Tony Awards. When you're growing up as an actor, you hear about Broadway and the Tonys, but it's not something you ever expect to experience.

In England, I'm known for playing villains.

Sometimes I look at Helen Mirren on stage and think, 'You really are the Queen.' You see people bowing to her at the stage door!

For me, this profession is about having a career where you can go on working for 60 years, so I'm not particularly bothered by things to do with fame; I like to think that I just do what I do.

It's a great luxury to have the writer with you on a new play because you can write and re-write, just trying to get the arc of the story, of their relationship right.

I worked as a clerical assistant at the Department of Health and Social Security for about three months before I went to drama school.

It's funny: what one tends to think of as the best work you've done is not what other people think is the best you've done.

I had a schoolmaster who was a supernumerary at Glyndebourne Opera, and through ,I got a job as a walk-on in Peter Hall's production of 'Don Giovanni' there in 1975 or 1976.

Theatre is what I've always done, really, especially with the RSC, but I do bits and pieces on TV.

I started with the piano-accordion and rebelled against it, but I could not afford piano lessons.

I adored being at the RSC and working on the verse and getting the iambic pentameter right. You just skim across the surface, and the speech is over before you know it. You can just ride along on the music of it.

In 'Notting Hill,' I was part of a whole plot line over six scenes that was completely taken out. That was rather depressing.

It is the nature of the business that you work unsociable, unpredictable hours and can get called away at a moment's notice to somewhere on the other side of the world. This can put a strain on home and personal life.

I don't think I have had a big break, although joining the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1986 opened up new horizons.

As a young actor, I worked with Kevin McNally and have always thought him brilliant.

It's funny: I can never sleep between shows; I think it's because I don't like to switch the motor off. I'll probably have some chicken or pasta, though never the two together, and maybe go out for a quick wander around.

A live audience with live reactions feeds a different sort of acting that will then inform your film work, and vice versa.

In my whole career, in fact, I can remember only two first nights when a show was at its peak on the first night. And I just wish we could devise a system where critics came not on a single evening but were given a choice of performances to attend.

It is strange how your understanding of a play changes. It normally happens after a performance and you suddenly think, 'So that's what that line really means' - it's like a light going on.

If you are feeling something, then Shakespeare felt it and wrote about it - and wrote about it so eloquently.

Experience tells us that whereas that degree of recognition can happen for one or two actors, for the vast majority it doesn't, so what matters is to try and be a better actor.

What's odd is that I've never been asked to do any comedy in film. That's something I could certainly do.

Music has always been profoundly important to me.