Obviously, I play a villain in 'Downton Abbey'. As an actor, you want to get a variety of roles, so to be offered the part of Joe, it was perfect.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
The acting in 'Downton Abbey' has been consistently excellent across the board.
I've always thought of myself as a character actor, even though I've played some leading-man roles.
Any good actor is a character actor.
I consider myself a character actor.
Working on 'Downton Abbey' is amazing, but there's an ensemble cast of between 18 and 21 actors. With 'Love Life,' there are two couples and a few other key characters. As a smaller unit, you've got to take more responsibility - at the same time, you can have more ownership of the direction it's going in.
My favorite actor who played villains - who could play anything, really - was Jimmy Cagney.
I'm always the interrogator. When I was an actor in rep, I always played sinister parts. The directors always said, 'If there's a nasty man about, cast Harold Pinter.'
I usually do get to play the very sweet, charming roles... but I'm not an obvious kind of villain.
I'm just a character actor.
I was never really a character actor - I was a leading man who was always cast as a character. I wanted to be Jack Nicholson or Jean Gabin.