Jim Sturgess

“I was quite badly behaved at school - I remember cutting class - and acting was a way of channelling energy.”

“I could see when I was filming '21' that it was going to go a direction I wasn't comfortable with it going.”

“When I was younger, I looked to actors like they were from another planet. You couldn't believe you could be anywhere near that world. It was exciting. I kind of like that.”

“I've probably written about three albums that no one will ever hear.”

“After 'The Way Back,' which was so epic and so rich, it was like, 'What will I do now?'”

“I'm drawn to cinema, especially when you're on a project that feels like it's going to be a challenge.”

“I really don't like the idea of people knowing what I am doing. I find telling everybody what you had for breakfast is really uninspiring.”

“Out of every 10 scripts I get sent, seven are fairly generic about an American guy who gets the girl and is involved in underground espionage activity.”

“Sometimes you read a script, and you just think, 'Wow, I would love to go and tell that story, and I don't even care what happens to the film, I would just love that experience.' And often, that mentality makes a great film.”

“When you meet somebody and you have an instant connection - why is that? Maybe you've met before? Maybe you've met in another life? Anything's possible.”

“It was when '21' came out. I was in Los Angeles and my face was everywhere: on buses, on posters, on the side of buildings. I didn't feel that blown away by it. I was still hungry to prove myself. I realised that quite quickly, that I had to find something that challenged me from an acting point of view.”

“I'm not an outdoors person by instinct or nature. I'm more of a city person.”

“To spend time with Ed Harris... he's an acting hero of mine, so that's a big deal for me.”

“As you wake up to sort of Morocco coming to life, and you drive a two hour journey through the desert as the sun is rising over the sand dunes... I saw landscapes and visual stuff that I'll never forget. It was special.”

“You find most of the interesting stories are the ones that are slightly harder to get made.”