Andrew Scott

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

“Really I just want to get on with my job, which is to pretend to be lots of different people. Simple as that.”

“One of my favourite parts of acting is the clothes that you get to wear, because it's very important.”

“Audiences like to be challenged and to be actively involved and try to guess an outcome.”

“I find any sort of acting that doesn't have any humor in it is mind-numbingly boring.”

“I have to write in sequence and only in sequence.”

“The goal is always just trying to stretch yourself as an actor.”

“I never make a note of anything; I never even write a plot down.”

“'Serious acting' is the kind of acting that I don't ever respond to.”

“I had a really fantastic dialect coach that I worked very well with, and I was constantly surprised by the different intonations that the Russian dialect has.”

“I want to keep everything balanced. That's why it's important not to have too much fanfare.”

“I don't like it when people ask actors to work for free - on the fringe - as if it's some kind of virtue. That annoys me - actors should be paid well.”

“I have a terrible superstition of writing things down.”

“I've played all these extreme guys, but playing an everyman type has its own challenges.”

“I do sometimes play characters that are a bit ambiguous. You've got to be brave about that sort of stuff. I like the sense of people not feeling too secure, not immediately knowing what they have in front of them.”

“Life's too short.”

“It sounds maybe a little old fashioned, but the parts I want to play and I do play, you don't want to inject too much of your own personality. What you sacrifice then is a slight mystery.”

“I'm not a big guy for research. You've got to take a risk.”

“If one story becomes too hot, then you can't forget it. As an actor, you want to remain fluid.”

“I can totally understand why people say: 'I'm going to do this T.V. series so that I can buy a flat'. But you've got to see what's of value to you as an actor.”