Robert Carlyle

Acting is probably the greatest therapy in the world. You can get a lot stuff out of you on the set so you don’t have to take it home with you at night. It’s the stuff between the lines, the empty space between those lines which is interesting.

I’m in four different films this year, and I have four different accents. I sound different in every film. You have to love a character to play it well, and change in my work is what I want.

We met in Cracker. I played a maniac fan who murders a policeman and she did my makeup. I thought anyone interested in me looking like that must have genuinely liked me.

Every actor I think has got their own number of takes that they like, you know. Some actors like to go all day, you know on the one scene and some actors want to take two takes. I personally like four.

Biologically, I’m lucky – an angular face and dark colouring which shows up well on camera.

The darker the character, the more interesting.

The script will point you in certain directions and I go the opposite if I can. I try do do one thing and tell a different story with my eyes. I believe what’s more interesting is always what’s not being said.

I want to keep audiences off balance, so they don’t know who I am or how to take me. If I duck and weave, as Frank Bruno might say, I’ll have a longer shelf life.

It depends who the director is you know, I mean Ken Loach for instance. I’ve done up to 32 takes with him.