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A cricket ball broke my nose when I was a kid so I couldn't breath through it. Before I had it operated on I used to stand on stage with my mouth slightly open.
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I investigated post-traumatic stress disorder. I've been to a unit where people are suffering from it, and I read a lot of literature. I looked at footage of soldiers in the combat zone. I found 'Restrepo' to be unbelievably useful.
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Fallible characters are more interesting than superheroes in the end.
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L.A. still ranks as one of my guilty pleasures, along with butter-pecan ice cream and Coldplay albums.
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The irony is that, coming from a white-collar British background, I tend to play blue-collar Americans!
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I love playing sport.
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I just don't consider myself to be, you know, an American actor. I don't want that life.
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It's an unfair comparison because when things are developed in the UK, they're developed at script stage only.
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I came of age as a male lead actor just as the TV landscape dramatically shifted.
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I suppose where I am sort of reflects the work I have chosen to do. Are there occasional frustrations because I can't work with a certain director because it's a big studio movie, and I don't have enough of a studio profile? The answer is yes. But generall... generally, I have the career I have chosen myself.
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If you believe - which I do - that acting is a bit like advocacy for your character, then of course I want to find the positive points.
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I found the hedge-fund guys I met all to be very, very concentrated listeners - watchful and articulate and quick to defend, if needed. They all seemed to have this contained sitting posture. The legs, if they weren't crossed at right angles, tended to be close over the knee, their hands put together.
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We had a good time mucking about during 'Band of Brothers' when we were young and single.
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There are lots of different reasons to choose roles.
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An interesting insight into the ruthlessness of studio executives: I was having a conversation with Alex Gansa, a creator of 'Homeland,' and I said, 'So you guys must have seen 'Life' and liked me in it, right? That's the most recent thing I've done over here.' And he went, 'No, Damian. You actually nearly didn't get the job because of 'Life.'
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It's successful, middle-class Arab men and women, professionals with seemingly happy family lives, who are prepared to go to paradise for a greater cause. That's terrifying.
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Would I have traded 'Homeland' for anything else? No. Would I trade 'Billions' for anything else? No.
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No Western government has ever played the long-term in terms of foreign policy.
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There is a machismo about an American male who is robust, athletic, able to build things, and he takes care of stuff. And it's a point of pride.
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It's sad that children don't spend enough time looking around and being amazed by what's in the real world.
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If you pick up an eighteenth-century play, at the top it says 'The Argument,' and then you have a list of characters, and then you have the play. I was just always struck by that - that, of course, good drama is about conflict.
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I love going for a swim. Growing up in England, anywhere with a pool seems like the height of glamour to me.
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My parents came to see me in a play at Eton when I was 16. And then, when I said I wanted to try for drama school, they knew there was enough passion there for them to be brave and back me.
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I'm a slow starter.