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I think I may have become an actor to hide from myself. You can escape into a character.

Getting in and out of a character takes its own time for me.

There's different ways of getting into character. There's what's called 'the outside,' in which is finding the physicality of the character first. To give an example, in 'Gettin' Square' - Johnny Spitieri - that's how I found that character. I knew those people that I'd seen up at Kings Cross. I knew how they sounded.

I never go into a scene - ever, ever, ever - thinking, I have to make myself more empathetic toward the audience. Once you start doing that, you get into really dangerous territory. I think you start to become kind of untrue to the character.

In TV, sometimes you get lost in the fog of the scene, and when you're working with such good actors, they can bring you into the scene.

I tend to - every time I step onto the set until the time I go back to the hotel, I just try to be in character all the time.

Losing yourself in the character opens you up in a way that no amount of precise preparation can.

You can escape into a character.

As actors, we are always playing other characters. It's so exhausting and time consuming to figure them out, so when you get the time to be yourself, you should take it.