The whole world of 'Game of Thrones' was realized with such detail, with directors and writers who really geeked out and really loved all the little bits of it.
The interesting thing is, when you play a real-life character or someone based in a book, you always come up against people's preconceptions of what they have in their heads.
My parents both work in publishing, and I was a bright, academic kind of kid, and I read a lot of books, and when you read a lot, I guess the muscle that gets exercised is where you can hear the voices in your head. You can turn words into pictures and into sounds and into colours and smells.
If I'm honest, the reason I got into acting is not the reason I'm still doing it, and if I'm still doing it in ten years' time, I'm sure I'll find something else.
As a child, I was fascinated by the stories of Dickens acting out everything in front of the mirror as he wrote it down. Later, when you approach his work as an actor, you notice how sayable the dialogue is.
I consider myself straight, but if I met a guy tomorrow and fell in love with him, would I be brave enough to accept that without having to change the way I look at myself?
It's always crude to link Dickens back to the blacking factory where he was sent to work aged 12 when his father was imprisoned in Marshalsea Prison for bad debt, but it was obviously a huge part of him.
