Quotes from Sean Bean

My first professional role was in 'Romeo and Juliet,' and I played Tybalt, who was Romeo's enemy, in a small production of that in the U.K.

I seem to be quite drawn to the medieval, magical fantasies, as it were.

When I first finished 'Sharpe,' it was hard to get work because people only saw me as him.

All this focus on my private life is the most unappealing aspect of being an actor. I don't like it, but it goes with the territory, and I have to put up with it. I certainly don't set out to attract attention.

When I was younger, I used to watch all the black-and-white 'Dracula's and 'Frankenstein's.

I love doing just nothing in my free time.

It would probably surprise people to know that I'm interested in wildlife. I read a lot of poetry, too.

I wouldn't say I'm a Method actor, but I do try to focus very deeply on what character I'm playing, and everything else goes out the window. I forget about everything. I try to get everything else out of my head.

I am quite quiet: I don't feel as though I have to express myself with words too often. Maybe I should do more.

Working in a garden calms me down.

I don't believe you just create a character out of thin air, there's always something of yourself you bring.

Obviously I'm delighted I'm a grandfather, but I guess it takes a little while to digest. You start thinking, 'Oh, I'm half-way over the natural life span. So this is the last bit, and I'd better enjoy it.'

The media portrayal of women is always angled towards looking thinner and skinnier and... that's not good.

George Martin looks like Santa Claus, but he's got a wonderfully disturbed mind.

I used to love wildlife as a kid and being outside in the garden and the woods and the field and that stuff.

I left school when I was 16; then I worked for my father, who was a welder. And I was a welder for three years, you know, welder of fabrication, metal 'cause it was a big industrial town, Sheffield. It was much steel and coal and stuff like that.

Apprenticeships are the real nitty-gritty way of creating an efficient, skillful and vibrant workforce.

Sharpe is my favorite role of all that I've played. He's a very complex character. He knows that he's a good soldier, but he will always have to fight the prejudice of aristocratic officers because of his rough working-class upbringing. On the battlefield, he's full of confidence - but off it, he is unsure, a bit shy and ill at ease.

There's something quite satisfying, quite reassuring about seeing a man having to survive.

I put quite a few trees in last autumn. A lot of silver birch and a couple of native trees - just generally doing gardening, putting plants in and hedges in. It takes quite a lot of time and I love it.

There's a wealth of literature out there which, hopefully, will be, you know, exploded in the future, and I personally find it very rewarding to be involved with classic storytelling, and sort of legendary characters.

I shared a dressing room with Pete Postlethwaite for 18 months, and he became a good friend. His discipline had an impact on me. You could have a laugh with him, but he was always on the ball when it came to work and very professional. Hopefully some of that rubbed off on me.

My mother and father raised their eyebrows at first when I said I wanted to be an actor because I was in this industrial city. My dad had done a bit of boxing on the side, but he was a welder first and foremost. I was 17, and I said, 'I want to be an actor.' They worried it was a waste of time.

I really got my money's worth from colleges in Sheffield and Rotherham because I kept dropping out, and I wasn't sure what I wanted to do at first, like a lot of teenagers.