Ray Stevenson

Ray: I got into acting through an Australian actor I got drunk with one night when I was working down in London.

(Ray describes Rome in simple terms.) Ray: Shine brightly, die young.

Ray: My mother always said to me, "Be in the business you're in." So that's what I would do.

(Rays favorite TV show.) Ray: This past year I've been traveling so much I didn't get to see much. While I was in L.A. I got into Entourage although I missed the first half of the season. And I'm always a big fan of The Sopranos.

(Ray speaks about his new project.) Ray: I'm shooting my first horror movie, called Outpost. I head a team supposedly checking up on minerals and geology, but actually it's far more sinister.

Stevenson: Actors are fraught with insecurities. We're always thinking "George Clooney's having a great career and why can't I get a movie?" It's absolutely ridiculous and pointless. What happens is, you're missing the life you have.

(Speaking about his character on Rome.) Ray: Women come up and say they love my character, although they find him a bit violent, they say it tongue-in-cheek — but the guys really connect.

Ray (on filming nude scenes in the series, Rome): There was very little body shame as we know it with out own social mores, so you had to make that adjustment. It became part and parcel of the whole.

Ray (on his costume in the series, Rome): Being at the other end of the social spectrum, I hated my sandals. They were a nightmare to put on and take off every day, and stones got under the feet all the time. The chain mail was a real sort of metal that used to bite - you were wearing the imprint of it all night! And the brass helmets in the Roman sun… well, basically, you're brain cooked and usually you had to flip them off with your fingertips because it got so hot inside.

Ray (how much he knew of his character on Rome beforehand): Titus Pullo is kind of like an everyman figure. One of the defining moments for me was finding out that Caesar's journals only ever mention generals, chiefs, senators, kings, great men of the time - never mentioning common people at all, apart from these two centurions, who were Lucius Vorenus and Titus Pullo.