HUGO WEAVING

I think I'm a bit of a dreamer. I don't like the reality of life to impinge much on my life.

I didn't get my licence because I wasn't allowed to. But I haven't had a seizure for a long time so I could, theoretically, get my licence. But I'm now just so used to not driving, I'm scared of what I'd do.

We're all outsiders in a way. We're all alone and can become very lonely.

Being in the woods at night is a beautiful thing.

It's kind of chased away a few demons for me and, um, it's educated me a little bit more.

When you're a kid you have this sense of wonder and wholeness and a strong sense of your own identity.

People are more likely to pass me on the street without recognizing me, and that's good.

To me acting originally became an extension of game playing.

I think I'm much less self confident today. I actually went through a quite painful period because of that thinking that I was completely hopeless. But I think that's something that we all go through at various times of our lives and it was quite a sustained thing with me.

As human beings, of course, we're all compromised and complex and contradictory and if a screenplay can express those contradictions within a character and if there's room for me to express them, that's a part I'd love to play, so much more than a character who is heroic and one-dimensional.

It's a real pleasure to go to work when you're in the most extraordinary surroundings, and working with people who are young and interested and creatively keen.

I used to have two double espressos a day. I gave that up, had headaches for five days but now I'm feeling great.

I'm 'of the world'.

I've often dreamed about going back to Nigeria, but that's a very romantic notion. It's a hideous country to go to in reality.

As an actor, to do all sorts of different films is great.

Initially I probably didn't even call it acting, but dressing up or something. As a kid I think you fully imagine the world in which you want to inhabit, so you put some clothes on and just kind of freely imagine this world, and it's a total imaginary world.

I do feel like I'm not entirely an insider.

Film sets are constantly amusing because you really are creating something that is so very surreal, and I kind of like that.

I still, by and large, make low-budget Australian films.

I think often in film we limit our imaginations a little - well, quite a lot, actually... things get quite formulaic.

I'm so used to Australian films not getting a release outside Australia.

As an actor, to play someone who's at war with himself, that's so interesting.

I kind of like the challenge of jumping into totally different spaces and styles and figuring out how to fit in.

If the script grabs me and appeals to me, I'm really very keen to work on it.

It's great to blow the image that people have of me out of the water.