A biography for Ben Whishawhasn’t been written yet.
“Your one certainty in life, your power as a human being, is that you have a choice in every situation about what you do next and about how you take what has happened to you.”
“What I notice about people who are gifted in filmmaking is that they're great thinkers. They engage with big ideas and they engage with people.”
“The thing about acting is that it's fairly random. At the end of the day you take what drifts past you or what's given to you.”
“I find it really hard to say anything coherent or interesting about the work I do.”
“My intuition comes up with better stuff than my head, I think.”
“I don't think I am especially interested in celebrities, but I love talking about what is going on with people and why they do what they do.”
“I would have loved to have been a painter or a sculptor. I'm still fascinated by those things.”
“The thing I love about acting is that you can bring something very personal into the open and at the same time remain hidden because you're always playing a character in a story that someone else has imagined. You're always protected.”
“I used to collect knick-knacks, like wizards, trolls and little buddhas, and arrange them like precious things on a shelf.”
“When I finished my A-levels, I assumed I'd be able to get work as an actor. But I couldn't. I didn't get an audition. Nothing. So I thought I'd better train and then the parts would come.”
“I wish that the arts were better supported, and you can't say that enough times, but I also believe that whatever happens, artists will keep going.”
“I reckon domesticated cats have a pretty good life.”
“In film, I find it very useful always to do some preparation before you start rehearsals or start shooting, because there's so much that's against you on a film set.”
“I do get stopped on the street, although rarely. And they always have something lovely to say.”
“It's fun to pretend you're good at something you know you wouldn't be good at in real life.”
“I don't think anyone can walk through the world in a state of vulnerability all the time, can they?”
“I don't have any ambition to make lots of money or win an Oscar or anything like that. It's not about that for me.”
“I think that sometimes in theater, I don't prepare much beyond going to the rehearsals.”
“Keats himself spoke about how Shakespeare was capable of erasing himself completely from the characters he had created. As an actor, that is what I'm trying to do.”
“I think the sensation of being moved by a piece of art is something that is really good for a person's soul.”