JAMIE DORNAN

People ask me what Gillian Anderson's like to work with, and I have no idea!

I'd always really wanted to act; but the modelling contracts came more easily.

It's not like I cleaned up with girls. I always looked young and I was very small; I hated being 'cute.'

Although just being employed as an actor is a big thing, I'm not sure I'd be satisfied playing the same character for 30 years; it's not why I want to do this for a living.

I don't really have choices in the material I get. So I have to make the choices in the way I play the characters.

There are so many ways to make a living that don't involve hiding in bushes opposite houses of 18-year-old girls with a camera in your hand.

Throughout Ireland, there's a brilliant community of filmmakers and actors, and I guess there was always a lure to do some work in the place where I come from.

It's funny when you know you're playing two characters and you're aware of how you have to play each one into your performance of the other. You're constantly at the back of your mind thinking and it all gets a bit confusing.

It's funny how you get a bit older and become more accepting of things. When you're in your twenties, you're skeptical of everything. I definitely felt like that.

I think people from Northern Ireland have some kind of unspoken general feeling of what it is to be around segregation. You have an awareness of it because you know how much grief it's caused.

I guess I'm just lucky with my genes.

I could eat 10 packs of Hula Hoops a day and not think about it.

Addiction is a terrible thing.

I can't really do the running on hard ground that I used to do. Instead I go swimming as often as possible.

My dad was a keen actor when he was young; my auntie is heavily involved in amateur dramatics back in Northern Ireland, and my great aunt was a woman called Greer Garson.

Mass appreciation doesn't always equate to something good.

People expect me to be stupid. I'm not saying I'm Stephen Fry, but it is amazing the perception people have.

Basically, I've always had a complex with the way I walk. I've not always been told I've got a bad walk, but someone's always commented on my walk.

I'm not saying that experiencing loss is why I can cope with darker worlds - I'm not saying that for a second - but I think it opens up a side of you in terms of work that wouldn't be as accessible had that stuff not happened.

I was a skinny guy growing up, and I still feel like that same skinny kid.

To play any character, you have to have a total understanding of why they do what they do.

Love from the fans is flattering. That's what makes the show. They are so essential to everything involved with 'Once Upon a Time.'

I don't like myself without a beard.

I'm probably the worst person for 'Men's Health' to interview.

'The Fall' changed my life - that's not an overstatement.