Simon Baker

(on maintaining an American accent) Simon Baker: It's a bit tricky. You have to keep on top of the accent. Sometimes you can slip back. What happens is you develop quite a good ear for yourself. I can hear when it's flat. But it's not easy. It's not necessarily a technical problem, it's trying to act at the same time, to make it be truthful and honest and come from deep within you, and come out of your mouth in a different way.

(on changing his name back to Baker) Simon Baker: There was nothing Hollywood about me changing my name. It was about wanting to find out where you fit in the world and where you come from. A lot of that became more potent for me when I was about to become a father myself. So that was the beginning of the saga and it took me to 30 to change back to Baker. It was really a process of letting go a lot of emotional baggage and guilt and all that sort of stuff and realising I am of my own self who I am. So it was going full circle. Who you are and the moments that you have just before you go to sleep-if you're at peace in those moments, then nothing else matters

(on his character in the Tv series "The Guardian") Simon Baker: I like the fact that he's imperfect, which is like everyone. Everyone's a bit imperfect in his own way. He's imperfect in an interesting way. He means well and wants to be a good person, I just think he's overcoming a lot of his own baggage. That's what drew me to it. It didn't seem usual. It seemed like a throwback to a period where we used to have leading characters that weren't genetically, spiritually perfect. Remember those days? Leading men were regular guys, someone you could identify with. Steve McQueen was a regular guy. Charles Bronson was a regular guy. Clint Eastwood's a regular guy.