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My sights have always been on acting, on the creative process, never the lifestyle. Growing up in Northern Ireland when I did, everything was against you if you wanted to do something like that. But I was determined.

I grew up in a small town in Ireland and didn't know any actors. I never thought it was a viable job. It wasn't until I was on 'The Tudors' that I realised it was a possibility.

Because I came from a small town outside Glasgow, nobody from my school had ever gone into the acting profession. It was just something you didn't do. You joined the bank or became a teacher or whatever you did.

To make a career as an Irish actor, generally it's the case that you move to London. When you make that move, you do tend to stand out.

When I started acting, there were parts in English that I thought I just had to try it out and go to another country. I did a film in Ireland. It was my first film abroad.

I didn't study acting.

Since I graduated college, all I have ever done for a living was acting.

If you're not acting, you're not an actor.

Sometimes, there's not an honest engagement of Ireland in Hollywood movies.

The Irish Catholic side was married to the life of an actor and I found out acting could be a form of prayer.