Mark Strong

Strong: A year ago I was playing the Guy of Gisborne character but the story isn't the Robin Hood story. Although all the characters are all involved, it's a different narrative.

Strong: I play King John's right-hand man who is a bit of a bastard – there's lot of horse riding, lots of threatening people with enormous swords.

Strong: I'm appalled at rumour is out there because it makes me out to be a complete idiot, Like, why the hell would you turn that part down? I would knee on broken glass to work with them.

Strong: I was able to do pretty much most of my fighting scenes in this movie. The difficulty obviously is, it's one thing being able to do fighting, but it's another thing doing it with your eyes closed while you're slumped over and you can't see your opponent. In a film, the more effort you put in, the more fantastic it looks.

Strong: What I love about Matthew is his taste. He won't look at the monitor and let something pass unless he thinks it's right and as an actor, that's what you want from a director. You want them to be your mate behind the camera.