Quotes from Aneurin Barnard

I love changing my roles. I think the most important thing that I can do for myself is to keep changing the genres, the periods, the characters themselves.

I came from a very, very small valley in the middle of South Wales. I grew up there with my father, who's a coal miner, and my mother worked in a normal factory.

Different films, different genres show the different things I do. It's nice because it brings different groups of people to following what I'm doing. So hopefully, it kind of reiterates that I'm not just a one-trick pony as well.

I like to portray things as close to the bone as possible.

One thing I learnt was that you don't have to spend all day shooting: you can get it done in half an hour if you're that talented as a cameraman.

I try to be respectful and talk to any fan and sign anything that anyone wants. Without the fans, you're not much. You need fans to do this job. I've got a nice little following, and it seems to be growing as each thing comes out.

For me as a Welsh actor, Richard Burton is one of my biggest idols. And I've got so many: Peter O'Toole, Laurence Olivier and Oliver Reed. If they got 'Hunky Dory' and 'Citadel' offered to them, they would do completely different jobs on both of them.

That's acting for you. 'White Queen' has English playing Welsh and vice versa.

I always used to pretend to be different characters - cowboys, that sort of thing. I used to think that the Indians lived over the mountains that I could see out of my bedroom. As I grew up, I started to understand that acting was actually a craft, and there was no question about it, that was exactly what I was going to do.

I've picked a camera up a few times. I remember buying my first camera when I was about 18 and really going wild with it, as you do as an 18-year-old, especially when you're in college.

I tend to invest a little more than I should when I do musicals, so it takes a lot out of me and my personal life.

It's so much nicer to be able to do your job with someone who's helping you, and you're helping them. Then, it becomes a tennis match where you're hitting the ball back and forth, and you're a team.

Would still love to do something with the 'Doctor Who' franchise at some point because I know they have a lot of fun.

The biggest thing about me, as an actor, is I'm never a finished product, you know? I always want to try something or be in a new genre because, one, it's much more fun to do that because you're not doing the same thing over and over.

I'm a big believer in playing truth and not doing things for effect. It's not about whether you look pretty or glamorous. It's about whether people connect. That's important to me in any work I do. For me, the key is always trying to find the connection between the audience and the character I'm playing.

I try to look after myself, but I don't think it's a good thing to be obsessed with body image. I wouldn't want a son or daughter of mine to feel manipulated by that; it's the wrong message.

I used to just daydream all the time about being in movies, from the age of, like, four onwards. I would sit down and watch movies with my father and my grandfather, and always pretended that I was in the stories.

I'm always eager to work with people I admire, people who have experience, who've made mistakes and made great things. That's the greatest teaching I could ever get in developing my own career.

Fame isn't happiness, but success and being respected in your craft is worth fighting for. You've got to work hard to be noticed.

I like being on a set where you can make decisions and everything is involved and are happy to work together to make the best work. For me, it's all about making the best work and creative people working together and all being respected and all having their opinions of what gives it the best quality is important.

Personally speaking, tights aren't too comfortable for a man to wear.

For me, every opportunity is a golden opportunity, so I just need to work as hard as I can to maintain credibility and respect and hopefully people enjoy watching me as an actor.

Award ceremonies are strange because you're sitting next to someone you've never met; you're celebrating with a total stranger.

I remember watching 'A Streetcar Named Desire' when I was quite young, I was about 12, or 13, and I watched it, thinking, 'Wow. That is pretty cool. I'd like to do something like that.'