I thought the best route to being the great actor I wanted to be was to play the great classical parts.
From Stephen Mangan
I was in a lot of school plays, and it became the thing I did.
I didn't know any actors growing up. My dad was a builder, and we didn't know any arty types.
If I wasn't an actor, I'd be a moody folk singer, sitting on stools and being very depressing.
I am a passionate believer that comedy is a way of tackling some of the most dark and difficult aspects of being a human being.
Comedy is a very personal thing, and some people will find it funny, some people won't.
There's always an anxiety about playing literary characters because one of the great joys of reading books is that you can create your own vision of things.
I had an inspirational teacher at my junior school: Peter Nixon. He was enthusiastic, knowledgeable and slightly scary - a good combination for a teacher.
I learnt a lot about how to negotiate the camera: everyone had told me an actor doesn't really need to do anything on screen, but I realised that wasn't true. If you do nothing, it's boring.
I enter myself in races. I did a triathlon, and I have done a marathon a couple of times.
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1 perspectives