James Norton Quotations

When I was playing a psychopath in 'Happy Valley,' it was really weird.

I grew up in the countryside, so I had quite a feral life up until the age of about fourteen.

I crashed my bicycle on the way to my first date with my ex-girlfriend and was cautioned by the police.

If it's a sunny day, I get this weird guilt if I'm not making the most of it, so I'll walk or go for a swim or get on my bike, or I'll go to the Heath, just have a reason to get out.

'Happy Valley' has really changed things for me.

Half of what creates psychopaths is genetic, but the other half is conditioning.

Kids used to come round to my house, and I'd force them to do a play in the bay windows of my house and get all the mums and dads to sit and watch. I'd write the programme, write the play and be the star.

I think the mistake lots of people make when it comes to a psychopath is that they completely write off their actions as cruel, callous and completely calculated, but actually, the truth is that they have interests and reasons behind their actions.

We live in secular world now, but most of our art and culture is rooted in religion.

When I got into drama school, that's when I knew that I could safely say that I wanted to be a professional actor.

I wanted to do a degree in something I was interested in before going into acting.

As far as people I'd like to work with, the list is endless. I think to work with Steve McQueen would be amazing, and then some of the U.K. talent we have: Eddie Marsan, Olivia Colman, both of whom I have met and admired for a long time. We're very blessed in this country; there is so much talent for people to work with and learn from.

You don't want a character who sits on an even playing field the whole time.

For any actor, it's a great privilege to play a character that is very distant from yourself.

For a long time I had a vintage stall, where I sold men's vintage clothing, and my girlfriend was convinced it was just to do with a problem I had where I just couldn't stop buying senseless clothes, even if they didn't fit me.

It takes a lot of courage, when everyone is asking you what you want to do, if you say that you want to be a musician or an actor; people can be very condescending and say, 'Oh, that's so sweet, good luck with that!' It can be very frustrating.

I love, when I'm on holiday in cities, going into church and feeling that reverence and that kind of automatic respect: the sort of magic which exists in those kind of religious temples.

I love good stories; you have to have a good plot - characters which intertwine with a good plot.

I had the acting bug from a very early age.

I grew up in North Yorkshire, but now London is home.

If you compare the violence in 'Happy Valley' to the violence in something like 'Game of Thrones,' it's nothing. But it is shocking because it's so real and grounded. The characters could live next door to you - they're not in a remote fantasy world.

Being in a person's head for five months, where they're so hateful, is kind of exhausting.

If you're constantly stepping outside of the character and judging them, you'll never really be able to fully engage because you'll always be slightly cynical.

Every day, every scene, you were like, "My god. I'm doing a scene with Brian Cox today and then I'm onto a scene with Stephen Rea." For us young actors, I think we were all very, very star-struck and impressed by the caliber of everyone who came out.

The Russians were all really accommodating, and that made it really special. To be allowed in Catherine's Summer Palace...Lily [James] and I have this scene where we fall in love and we waltz up and down this enormous gold hall with thousands of candles and a live orchestra and 300 Russian extras. To do those scenes in situ really meant it was a once-in-a-lifetime job.

You really try to work the character out and spend time in the headspace of the character. That's what I did.

There's so much going on in Andrei [Bolkonsky]. He's wrangling with these big existential conundrums, and he tries out different routes to fulfillment. He tries falling in love, that doesn't work. He goes to war and searches for military glory, that doesn't work. He does the quiet life of a farmer. He's always active. That's what I loved about him, he's always looking, searching. He's really inquisitive.

As an actor, I think most people have a tendency to want to demonstrate that they can act, they can emote.

Being in Russia filming War & Peace...filming War & Peace alone is an extraordinary experience, but to be out there was just magical.

I'm quite a smiley guy, I have my moments, but I think I'm generally of a relatively optimistic nature.