Rupert Graves

Rupert: (Talking about the movie "God on Trial" in which he plays a prisoner in Auschwitz) It was very heavy. Good, but very harrowing. In fact, it upset me more than anything I have ever done.

Rupert: (On why he prefers not working in theater now that he has young kids) I'd rather do a chunk of filming where you work intensively and and then have a month off. With a long theater run you don't see the kids because they're at school during the day, then you finish very late at night and they're bouncing around at 6am.

Rupert: (Showing how insecure he is about having left school early) I'm entirely uneducated. I went to public school - public in the American sense - a blue-collar, working-class school. I never got a scholarship, I left when I was 15, never did any exams. I never went to acting school. I started in the circus, music hall, I was in a group, did kids' bits. I've always had this kind of insecurity being uneducated. I've drifted into acting and I've drifted into my career and I've never been guided by anything particularly concrete.

Rupert: (On how sexuality is fluid and how tags are limiting) I've been very aware ever since I was a child how futile it is to start categorising. I know that sexually I am a lot more drawn to women than I am to men. But I do find it hard to define myself, because as soon as you state one thing, you deny everything else. Some people know exactly who they are and what they want to do. I don't have that. I feel wider... not deeper or cleverer or anything, just wider...

Rupert: (On ambition) If I was pushy, I wouldn't be doing acting for the right reasons. I admire grace; I don't like ambition if it's so naked.

Rupert: (On the making of the movie The Innocent Sleep) I didn't enjoy working of The Innocent Sleep, to tell you the absolute truth. It was quite fraught because the script wasn't there and the director hadn't work before. They were tensions, tensions...

Rupert: (Describing himself as a child) I wasn't basically happy... I was difficult. I had three or four good friends, but I don't think I was terribly popular. I was sort of thin and ill... glandular fever and cold and things... and I was quite frightened. I think that I knew that when I was older, I'd feel happier. I was bored as a child and quite sad.

Rupert: (Explaining what's his reaction to another period drama offer in an interview in 1998) I always have that debate when I'm offered a period drama; I think 'oh no, not another fey public school boy', but deep down I know I'm not like that. I went to a crappy comprehensive in Weston-Super-Mare.

Rupert: (On how important clothes are for a character) Clothes are important, you can play a character and know it's not right because the pair of shoes you're wearing don't at all make sense. Acting is like putting on a new suit. Denholm Elliot told me that "it's like taking a picture for mom and dad", and for that picture, sometimes you get a costume which you wouldn't think the character you created would wear, which causes a problem.

Rupert: (Talking about the mini-series The Forsyte Saga in which he played Jolyon Forsyte Jr. and what were his thoughts when he read the book by John Galsworthy) It's a saga of a family, the intricacies of a family tree that are woven into one big, old story. I read the first book and I thought, 'Oh Christ, it's so pompous.' And then you realise that he's being ironic. It's beautifully written. It's worth telling again.

Rupert: (Explaining what the charity he supports - Springboard Opportunity Group - does) It's basically there to help parents with kids who have learning difficulties, they might be deaf, or they might be autistic, any kind of difficulties at all. It's kind of pre-school. They have experts to help them, with a support network.

Rupert: (On why he chose his role in Take a Girl Like you, a production of Masterpiece Theatre) I won't just do any old script that comes along.... I couldn't say no to this, though. I spend the whole time lying, cheating, sneaking around and having sex and doing scenes with Leslie Phillips. I love the story. I just think there's an absolute honesty about human sexuality that is very hard to reach.

Rupert: (Saying how he doesn't like his name and what alternative he would have liked) My mum called me it because there was a man called Billy Wright who used to be England's captain and apparently he knew someone called Rupert who used to kick a ball against my grandad's house in Shropshire years ago. She thought he was a bit dangerous, a bit racy. I'm named after him. I always liked the name Michael, but I never got round to doing anything about it.

Rupert (On what he most enjoyed about playing the part of Daniel Cosgrave in Midnight Man) I liked the idea of playing a modern political beast, I love paranoid political thrillers as a genre and I thought it was very well written.

Rupert (On why he doesn't like to give interviews) It's just very dull, talking about yourself and about something that you've got less interest in than you had, because you've always moved on to something else. But you have a contractual obligation.