TOBIAS MENZIES

Love is a very big word.

I live or die by how well I act.

Do I think the West End relies too heavily on star names? Yes, I do, and it can result in miscasting and sub-standard stuff. Not always, but occasionally.

I'm largely interested in people who are just great actors, and they're not necessarily hugely famous.

I'm not sure I had the legs for togas.

I really enjoy the darker side of things. It's the type of work that I like to watch. I know some actors feel fearful of how they'll be viewed. But invariably, I find dark material can be very, very rewarding to inhabit and investigate.

I suppose that's why we watch dramas: to see the stuff that in real life you'd end up in prison for.

I remember auditioning for 'Moulin Rouge!,' the part that Ewan McGregor played. I was so young: I was literally just out of college.

The success of 'Rome' was in making the history accessible and giving viewers everyman characters through which they can connect to historical figures. It stops the story from being too remote.

I quite like sort of being able to walk down the street with no one noticing.

I love little theatres because it's very intimate, and you can have a very easy rapport with the audience. Everyone's in the same room.

Do I think the West End relies too heavily on star names? Yes, I do, and it can result in miscasting and sub-standard stuff. Not always, but occasionally.

I live or die by how well I act.

I've been really lucky to have had a variety of roles, and I don't think I'm in danger of being typecast as the romantic lead. I think there's honour in working as constantly as you can. That isn't easy. And I'm no matinee idol.

I'm largely interested in people who are just great actors, and they're not necessarily hugely famous.

'Rome' plays on universal human emotions that hopefully people can relate to. Historians are always going to be offended by it.

I like what I do, and a lot of these projects have really interesting material and interesting people to work with. I feel lucky.

In general, I am more interested in the darker characters when I watch or read stories.

The success of 'Rome' was in making the history accessible and giving viewers everyman characters through which they can connect to historical figures. It stops the story from being too remote.

Scripts can be slick and structured, but do they always contain the truth?

I quite like sort of being able to walk down the street with no one noticing.

I'm not sure I had the legs for togas.

Love is a very big word.

I suppose that's why we watch dramas: to see the stuff that in real life you'd end up in prison for.

I remember auditioning for 'Moulin Rouge!,' the part that Ewan McGregor played. I was so young: I was literally just out of college.

I really enjoy the darker side of things. It's the type of work that I like to watch. I know some actors feel fearful of how they'll be viewed. But invariably, I find dark material can be very, very rewarding to inhabit and investigate.

The type of acting that I'm interested in, that I aspire to, is where I try and drag a lot of myself into whatever character it is. They can be very different types of characters, but at the heart of it, I always wanted to be a very, very believable and rooted in reality. One of the ways of doing that is to root it as much as you can in your own experiences and then tint those with different hues, different colors to give the different characters their way.