“Why did you decide to move to Los Angeles? The opportunities are not as big in England, and I saw opportunity in America. I’d made a film, a period piece with Frances McDormand and Amy Adams called Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day. So with that movie I flew myself out, [and] took a bunch of meetings. I [then] booked a job a couple of years later on HBO called Luck and moved over with that, basically — and then stayed. The weather is nicer and the money is better. London is a bit of a grind and it’s really fucking expensive, and living in Los Angeles I could work one job and make that money last for a year. In the end I got this job [The Walking Dead] and now I’ve just bought a house there, so I guess I’m kind of settled now. Have you noticed a difference between the American mindset and the British? That was another thing that prompted my move. I was always very optimistic and ambitious, and the attitude in England was always like, ‘Oh yeah? Well, good luck with that.’ I always thought, Fuck you, I can do whatever I want to do and I’m going to go and be a movie star. I think people in this country are afraid to show any kind of ambition or confidence. I definitely rubbed a lot of people up the wrong way because they thought I was too confident when I lived here, and then obviously you just get called arrogant all the time, but it wasn’t really that. I was never mean or nasty to people, or thinking, I’m better than you. I just always thought, I’m going to do this, this is what I’m going to do with my life, and I’m going to make a success of it. I think the people who fall by the wayside whom I studied with just couldn’t do the grind of it any more. It’s hard. I’m 35 years old and I only really got the major success in my early thirties.”
