SYLVESTER MCCOY

Now I'm old... maybe I'm still an eccentric hippie. There's a wonderful freedom in the eccentricity - you can go places, you can be wacky, and you don't have to be constrained. I think that's why people are eccentric - eccentricity is a weapon... and it's great!

Theatre is the principal job of an actor. An actor's job is to tell a story to someone in a room. TV and film can be great and I really love doing it, but it is a different way of telling a story.

I don't relax. I sit down and contemplate all the energetic things I should do.

There's still a part of me that believes what was great about 'Doctor Who' in the early days was that you had a superhero who didn't wear his underpants on the outside of his trousers, who used his brain rather than his brawn.

I think back to my time in children's television, back in the 1970s, and the amount of innovation that was going on then. Because the mass market wasn't focused on it, so you had a freedom to do amazing things, like 'Vision On,' and 'Tiswas.'

I once went to a 'Star Trek' convention by mistake - I thought I was going to a 'Doctor Who' one.

They were the books to read, 'The Hobbit' and 'The Lord of the Rings.' A rite of passage going through life.

As far as I'm concerned, Cate Blanchett is a goddess, but she's really down to earth. She's got all those Oscars, she's made all those amazing films and she could spend her whole life doing that, but what does she also do? She gives birth to three boys and creates her own theatre in Sydney.

'Doctor Who' is not as literary as 'The Lord of the Rings' and 'The Hobbit' is - books have come out, but they are from the television episodes. So there is that difference... it's more scholastic.

Variety has always been in my mind: to do something totally different. I've had a parallel career since the beginning. On one track, the TV and film, the other, theatre, but they never crossed.

The thing is, I'm a gypsy; I love travelling!

Theatre is the principal job of an actor. An actor's job is to tell a story to someone in a room. TV and film can be great and I really love doing it, but it is a different way of telling a story.

There's still a part of me that believes what was great about 'Doctor Who' in the early days was that you had a superhero who didn't wear his underpants on the outside of his trousers, who used his brain rather than his brawn.

There's always pressure on filming. There's the weather, people, various different technical problems. There's always pressure! And there's never really enough time for anything, really!

Film actually is a very strange thing - you can fly in, get off the plane, and climb into bed with somebody you've never met - and that's weird!

I think back to my time in children's television, back in the 1970s, and the amount of innovation that was going on then. Because the mass market wasn't focused on it, so you had a freedom to do amazing things, like 'Vision On,' and 'Tiswas.'

On stage you look much larger than you are. You can have subtle changes of timing; how you place a punch line in a joke or movement or emotion according to an audience.

I do actually like performing to a live audience. I like the response. I do a lot of Doctor Who conventions now, and the reason that I do them is that there is a live audience I can get to directly.

'Doctor Who' is not as literary as 'The Lord of the Rings' and 'The Hobbit' is - books have come out, but they are from the television episodes. So there is that difference... it's more scholastic.

I once went to a 'Star Trek' convention by mistake - I thought I was going to a 'Doctor Who' one.

In acting, quite a lot of the time you're not the first choice. Usually, you're second or third. And it can turn out to be the best thing that ever happened. You get used to that.

Now I'm old... maybe I'm still an eccentric hippie. There's a wonderful freedom in the eccentricity - you can go places, you can be wacky, and you don't have to be constrained. I think that's why people are eccentric - eccentricity is a weapon... and it's great!

They were the books to read, 'The Hobbit' and 'The Lord of the Rings.' A rite of passage going through life.

I've never planned my career, really. It just comes along, and I do whatever comes next!

I don't relax. I sit down and contemplate all the energetic things I should do.

Variety has always been in my mind: to do something totally different. I've had a parallel career since the beginning. On one track, the TV and film, the other, theatre, but they never crossed.

Every actor is always prepared for the worst when it comes to work.

I've got two sons whom I love to death, and I love them differently.

As far as I'm concerned, Cate Blanchett is a goddess, but she's really down to earth. She's got all those Oscars, she's made all those amazing films and she could spend her whole life doing that, but what does she also do? She gives birth to three boys and creates her own theatre in Sydney.

I love playing 'Radagast.' He's my new love, you know what I mean? I'm not divorcing 'Doctor Who.' I'm just going to be married to a few people.

I quite enjoy fame, especially when you go to conventions in America where they treat you like a god with stretch limos and the whole fame thing, but then when you come back to Britain, you end up changing in a toilet in a theatre off West End and that's really good, because that is what it's about.

If anybody asks me to do a job, I say, 'Yes.' I've said yes to everything.

As far as I'm concerned, an audience is an audience. Whether it's an audience in Hull or the National Theatre, that's who you play to. It's not money - it's good to get some, but that's not why I do it. You do it because you have to, to tell a story.

I have the philosophy of yes. If anybody asks me to do a job, I say, 'Yes.' I've said yes to everything.

Every great decision creates ripples. Like a huge boulder dropping in a lake. The ripples merge and rebound off the banks in unforseeable ways. The heavier the decision, the larger the waves, the more uncertain the consequences.