I'm three-quarters Russian, so I've always felt an outsider. But I don't think you can be in a play with John Of Gaunt's 'This sceptred isle' speech and not feel proud to be British.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
To be the outsider is actually a great thing in England.
I've always been an outsider. Even in London. If I returned to Scotland, I'd feel a complete foreigner.
During my childhood in Cyprus, the British talked about the Cypriots as if the Cypriots were outsiders in their own country. And even though I was born in Cyprus, my parents were American, and so I was an outsider in the land of my birth.
I am very proud to be British. I'm very conscious of carrying my country with me wherever I go. I feel I need to represent it well.
I was brought up in Britain, and I'm very proud of my Britishness and my culture.
I had to choose between American and British actors, and it didn't take me more than a second to decide: Russians are Europeans and should be played by other Europeans.
I do consider myself British. I have very strong feelings about my British heritage.
You couldn't escape the literary atmosphere in our home. I grew up as a Britisher. I played a protagonist of every nationality in stage adaptations of Shakespeare and Brecht. I graduated from Yale. When I moved to the U.S., I realized with some amount of surprise that I was seen as an ethnic actor.
Well, I'm British. I'm proud to be British and I love this country. I'm going nowhere.
I feel more Irish than English. I feel freer than British, more visceral, with a love of language. Shot through with fire in some way. That's why I resist being appropriated as the current repository of Shakespeare on the planet. That would mean I'm part of the English cultural elite, and I am utterly ill-fitted to be.