I was getting to bed about 10 P.M. so wound up and not getting to sleep by 11, and because I was putting the prosthetics on for five hours, I had to be up at 3 in the morning. |
I was training to be a lawyer... I was president of the law society at Glasgow University, and my bass guitarist was my secretary of my law society; the lead guitarist and writer worked at the law firm that I worked. |
I went from somebody who didn't sing to somebody who didn't speak. |
I'm not a macho guy. |
I'm sure, at the end, you can never keep everybody happy, especially the Scots-I hate to say this-if you're dealing with one of their national heroes. No matter what way you do it, there's no way you'll keep everybody happy. So I'll expect some praise, and I'm sure I'll get a lot of abuse. |
I'm very down-to-earth. I think I'm still 'street'. |
If I think the movie's not going to turn out, I quickly try and disassociate those feelings and push myself away... . |
If you abandoned yourself to that world and that character and that period surrounded by extras in the same period clothing and costumes and listening to that music all the time, you give in and you let that music become a part of your soul. Then you can live it and breathe it, which is really what I was trying to do. |
If you just tell the story of what the story's about, then it sparks curiosity, but I think it also arouses suspicion, as you say, that it could be overly sentimental. But it so isn't. And I think it was all about doing the inner work and then underplaying everything. |
My manager and my agents, they go over my contracts. |
Of course when you spend four hours in prosthetic makeup and you really are looking at yourself and you see how revolting you've become in a way, it obviously adds another strand and helps you... a little bit more. |
On Phantom... I listened to the music while I was reading the script. And it had just blown me away. I really... I was so excited about it. It's been a long time since I really got so excited about something. |
One of the nicest privileges as an actor is to know that you can move people in one moment, make them think about their lives, or make them laugh or make them cry or make them understand something. Or just make them feel something, because I think so many of us, including myself, spend too much time not feeling enough, you know? |
The chance to be both artistically appreciated and commercially appreciated... That's what you hope for. |
The Phantom, as well as being backed up by that music, it just so was a role that I identified with so powerfully. From the first second that I walked on to perform. |