Rupert Graves

I drifted into acting, and I've drifted into my career, and I've never been guided by anything particularly concrete.

I just think the older I get, actually, the better I feel.

It's interesting when you're in your thirties and you're not the same pretty boy that you were when you were 21. I think people's anger at themselves getting older is projected on to you because you become a symbol of that.

The amount of work you need to do to become a very successful celebrity is something I'm not prepared to do.

I was a dozy boy; I'd like to have been like James Dean, but I was more Arthur Askey - pathetically rebellious in a cheeky, chappy sort of way.

I kind of always wanted to act, but to get a grant I would have needed two A-levels, and I was too far away from even O levels. I didn't know you could get a scholarship, so I determined early not to pursue that.

I'm crap at interviews. I'm just not very good at sentences.

I don't plan. I don't think, 'I have to do this kind of part 'cause I've done that kind of part.' I'm not a very good planner.

I never went to acting school. I started in the circus, music hall, I was in a group, did kids' bits. I've always had this kind of insecurity being uneducated.

I was a closet straight. I think I wanted to be gay because I thought it was arty and interesting. And also, I was phenomenally shy with girls.

I'm entirely uneducated. I went to public school - public in the American sense - a blue-collar, working-class school. I never got a scholarship, I left when I was 15, never did any exams.

There's a thing I think children realise at a certain age, which is that if their parents say, 'Don't do it', and they go ahead and do it, they're still not going to die. And I think that's what it is: that no matter what you do, you're not going to die.

Not being anxious requires a level of humility, doesn't it? It does, I think. It's not all about you.

I was concerned about doing the right thing when I was a kid. I suppose as a child, you're a massive egomaniac, and you think that everything you do is going to affect the world.

It's just very dull. Talking about yourself and about something that you've got less interest in than you had, because you've always moved on to something else.

The urge to act became the overriding force in my life. It thrilled me. There's a moment with acting when you're in the groove, and you and what you're trying to do are seamlessly one. That happens sometimes, and I'm really happy it can happen to me.

Celebrity's a pain in the backside - you're always on display.

You have to be savvy to be a celebrity. You have to create a personality and shove that out. It just seems fatuous to me. Professionally, it's a good idea. But I can't do it.