When sudden death takes a president opportunities for new beginnings flourish among the ambitious and the tensions among such people can be dramatic as they were when President Kennedy was killed.

Even when you're making a movie about life death is a presence and I guess it's part of my dramatic viewpoint. I'm not sure why exactly. Maybe I'm drawn to it as a story element.

I love playing a dad. It's hard to find family dramas that are genuinely funny.

My life isn't that dramatic. My dad really loves me he just can't talk on the phone. He's too crippled and shy and that's almost harder. He's there and he loves me and I try and try and try it's just impossible to have a relationship.

I haven't really decided to be an actor yet! I started doing plays when I was about 15 or 16. I only did it because my dad saw a bunch of pretty girls in a restaurant and he asked them where they came from and they said drama group. He said 'Son that is where you need to go.'

After graduating from flares and platforms in the early 1970s I started drama school wearing a pair of khaki dungarees with one of my Dad's Army shirts accessorised by a cat's basket doubling as a handbag. Very Lady Gaga.

A dramatic thing the first time you stand up to your dad.

The courage of life is often a less dramatic spectacle than the courage of a final moment but it is no less a magnificent mixture of triumph and tragedy.

Don't Make Assumptions. Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings sadness and drama. With just this one agreement you can completely transform your life.

You can think of Hollywood as high school. TV actors are freshmen comedy actors are maybe juniors and dramatic actors - they're the cool seniors.