Top 30 Christopher Eccleston Quotes

I think film and television are really a director’s medium, whereas theatre is the actor’s medium.

The money is better in films and television. But in terms of acting, theatre is more rewarding.

I heard the various terms of abuse at school and probably indulged them in the way you do as a kid.

I want to direct but I think I’d be bloody awful and I don’t want to produce but I think I’d be a very good producer because if I believed in something I’d be able to protect it.

The film is about Joe discovering who his mother and father are and his relationship with them, and the identity crisis he goes through once he finds out who his parents are.

I used my instincts. It’s very easy to imagine how you’d feel, actually. I just had to tell the narrative.

I only ever worked on interiors, and an interior is an interior. I don’t know what they did about exteriors.

Jacobean plays, before Shakespeare, were particularly visceral.

The person who gives you your first job is so important in any industry.

I love Dead Ringers. A democratic set, the work was taken seriously.

I’ve never been up with the times, always been slightly out of step.

I got a tiny part in a play, auditioned for another one and got that as well. Not only that, the first finished on the Saturday and the other started on the Monday which is like an actor’s dream!

I love my accent, I thought it was useful in Gone In 60 Seconds because the standard villain is upper class or Cockney. My Northern accent would be an odd clash opposite Nic Cage.

My parents always knew I was hopeless at everything else, I was fortunate in that I was backed all the way. I came to it late and only because I thought there’d be loads of women and drinking!

I had to help to coax the performances and I really enjoyed that extra responsibility.

Lots of middle class people are running around pretending to be Cockney.

I know exactly where I’ve come from, I know exactly who my mum and dad are.

Theatre is expensive to go to. I certainly felt when I was growing up that theatre wasn’t for us. Theatre still has that stigma to it. A lot of people feel intimidated and underrepresented in theatre.

I think the themes of belonging and parentage and love are obviously universal.

Twelve years on sets watching directors, I’ve taken a bit from everybody and rejected a lot.

What goes down on film is different to what you see with the naked eye.

On The Others, very atmospheric and probably mysterious is how I would say it felt to be on the set. It felt just a little uneasy, the atmosphere that we were trying to capture.

Any horror element is as much psychological as special effects.

I went being unemployed for three years to being the lead in a British feature in the days when we only made two a year, 1990. It was ridiculous really.

It can be very difficult to trace your birth parents.

We all need a firm sense of identity.

I don’t see a lot of films. I’m quite choosy, but there’s certain films that stick out.

Many times I’ve sat with a camera and another actor and seen all their fears and insecurities and struggles. You want to support them and help them as much as you can.

Rather than disliking theatre, I’ve expressed a preference for television because it tends to deal in its small way much more with issues and is able to reach a broader church of people than theatre.

I had bags of energy as a kid.