You talkin’ to me?

Film quotes pose as questions. Film stars try to cope. In the crosshairs this month: Mark Strong

You talkin’ to me? Robert De Niro I worked with on Stardust, and his method of working is that he won’t just give you the line, and then you say your line, then he says his line. He repeats his line a few times until he’s got it right in the way that he wants it, and I’ve heard a rumour that ‘Are you talking to me?’ came out of his method. You talk the talk. Do you walk the walk? Well, as I play villains most of the time, I can’t really spend my home life behaving like I do on screen, so I don’t. I talk the talk in the movies but I walk the walk at home. You can either surf or you can fight... I think a little bit of both, in life, is probably a good way to go. I’ve been lucky enough to balance my home life and my work life. In London I still travel on the tube, I have a relatively normal life, but I still get to pull out George Clooney’s fingernails and hang out with Leonardo DiCaprio. What’s the last thing you do remember? I remember [ when filming Kingsman: The Secret Service], because Merlin spends most of his time looking at computer screens, there was no image on the computer screen: in fact there wasn’t even a computer, there was a piece of wood with green paper blu-tacked to it. So I remember thinking how insane it was that I’m literally conducting these things happening when they haven’t even been shot. Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight? If I have done, it’ll probably be work that I’ve done that isn’t what I’d call proper work. Like the Jaguar advert. Although it was really cool and I loved doing it, I was very well paid for it, and it seemed like a very big thing for only a couple of days of easy work. I got to drive that car at 90mph down The Mall, which is a 30mph speed limit. And I just thought, ‘Wow, this is a lot of fun,’ and I felt very guilty doing it. Why so serious? I keep getting asked that by photographers, they’re always at me, ‘Smile! Go on, smile!’ That’s just not my best look. If you play villains, and you’ve made a career out of playing heavy duty guys, you don’t want to appear in pictures grinning like a loon. [ Laughs] I’ve got to send a public service message to the people out there that being a superhero is bad for your health. I think chasing fame is bad for your health. Being an actor, no. Being an actor I absolutely love. I have a genuine affinity with trying to create characters and tell stories. That’s why I’m doing it. But if I ever felt it was about the fame or being noticed, or anything like that, I’d give it up immediately. MM ETA | 8 june Kingsman: The Secret Service is available on Digital HD, Blu-ray and DVD this month.

‘As I play villains most of the time, I can’t really spend my home life behaving like I do on screen’