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Most period drama is so earnest. A lot of it is about making yourself take seriously things you wouldn't normally.

What you have to understand about period drama is that it's 'history light.'

I've done a lot of period dramas, but I love modern productions, too.

From time to time there is a move to do a little less in the way of period dramas, but people rebel. Audiences say we want them. There is a big hunger for them. I don't think it's sentimentality or nostalgia, it's often that they are simply the best stories.

I like period drama because everyone is so restrained, but they have all these emotions raging underneath.

As much as I love period movies and especially more swashbuckling movies, I think that sometimes they tend to be, umm... it's hard for the audience to relate to them.

I find more interesting roles for women in period pieces. I do personally like watching period films; I think you can really get lost in the fantasy of them.

Period dramas seem to take actors to the next level because they do so well in America.

I know I'm as comfortable doing period as I am contemporary. I suppose we grow up with it in a sense, in the theater. We get to put on costumes and play a lot of period dramas or plays so we're exposed to it a little bit more I think because of our theatrical background.

Period drama is such a huge umbrella term: it seems to cover everything from Claudius to something from the 1920s.