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It was awesome and liberating to play a Russian spy.

I absolutely fell in love with Moscow. It's one of those places where you can't help but trip over history at every turn. It's a city of enormous contradictions. Within a few yards of Lenin's Tomb is some of the most expensive shopping in the world.

Russia is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.

There was something about the idea of Russia that I found very intriguing, and I think I had romanticized it a lot.

I went to Moscow and met some slightly powerful and scary people.

Moscow is a huge inspiration for me. I love what I find here, I love being here.

Much that we read of Russia is imagination and desire only.

It's a thrilling world, and people really like stories about secrets, which is the essence of a spy drama.

Russia itself is an extremely complex country, and sometimes I feel like all of that comes back to haunt me. I can see why so many Russian writers were so tortured.

The FSB's invisible presence continued; the agency became an intangible part of my Moscow life - sometimes loudly, sometimes quietly, with someone in a back room clearly turning the volume of minor persecution up and down.