I used to write out of angst. My writing was quite miserable, quite angry, even when it was funny. It was based on this sadness and tired emotional disdain for the world.
David Thewlis
When I’m sat in the pub with my mates, they’ve got their stories: Richard and Tracy have split up, they went to Arsenal and this fight broke out… My anecdotes are like, ‘I was in this bar, and Michelle Pfeiffer rang, and I had wax in my ear, so I couldn’t hear what she was saying…’
David Thewlis
Everybody knows someone like that: wonderful, attractive people full of passion and ideals. You envy them, but you know there’s a dark side, which is brutal and cruel and violent. That dark side informs what’s wonderful about them, and the passion and rage inform the darkness; they’re inseparable.
David Thewlis
I don’t worry. I’m more stoical. Of course I have insecurities. I fear getting older. I fear death and illness. I’m not prone to depression, but I get depressed because everybody gets depressed. Suddenly I’m away from my family or doing a job I’m not enjoying.
David Thewlis
I could, of course, have written about the film world and the jealousy there and the frequent belief that others don’t have talent. But, for some reason, it just struck me to write about art.
David Thewlis
What is truth? What is a true story? Who is telling the truth, and what is truth in this world today?
David Thewlis
I can remember, after I started doing films, my mum began going to more arthouse films. She went to see ‘Edward Scissorhands’ and phoned me up and said: ‘What was that all about? He had scissors on his hands.’ Good question. I think she should review films on Channel 4.
David Thewlis
I see people around me with very unhappy love lives, who may have held out for that perfect somebody. And the failure to achieve that brings along a lot of bitterness which is very unattractive; therefore they’re probably less likely to achieve it.
David Thewlis
An Inspector Calls’ is a British classic, and I am thrilled to be working on this beautiful screen adaptation with Aisling Walsh.
David Thewlis
The very best thing about doing it is seeing the reaction on kid’s faces when you tell them you’ve done it.
David Thewlis
The oddest things happen to me. It goes in seasons. Nothing will happen for a long time, and I miss it, and I remember how these strange coincidences used to happen to me and how amazing it was, how it made me want to believe in something. A year will go by, and then a slew of them will come along, like buses, one after another.
David Thewlis
I don’t think Alfonso was a big expert on Potter either. He was feeling his way through it more than I was.
David Thewlis
I had such a nice time making it, and I can’t wait to make the fifth one. The whole crew were just really, really lovely. All the costume people, the make-up girls, the kids – even my driver.
David Thewlis
And it was only released in London last week, so when I go back to England Monday or whatever, I am expecting heaps of adulation. I’m hoping there is. If that doesn’t happen I will be disappointed.
David Thewlis
Well I am afraid that I am going to die, because I have just put a down payment on a house.
David Thewlis
Restoration I did because I really loved e novel and I like Michael Hoffman, who directed it, but it wasn’t a really challenging part for me. I’m not critical of the film: I just don’t think I gave a very interesting performance.
David Thewlis
It wasn’t the greatest script in the world, but not many people can say they’ve played a wicked king in a swashbuckling Arthurian special-effects monster movie.
David Thewlis
I met the Coens here a few years ago and they said they liked my work.
David Thewlis
I’d only read a bit of the first book. And I just knew about all the media furor over it. But I’d not read books 2 or 3. I’d just read a bit of it. And I’d seen the films.
David Thewlis
Yeah, well that’s the best thing about it, I think, is knowing kids and kids getting mental when they know you’re in it. Any kid you meet and anyone I know tells the kid you’re in it and they get short of breath.
David Thewlis
I was still listening to the Beatles until I came here, you know.
David Thewlis
When you do something well, this is the best job in the world.
David Thewlis
Before Anna, I’d had a few relationships and I’m glad I’ve been around a bit. I know where it’s gone wrong or know who are the wrong people for me and who I might be wrong for.
David Thewlis
I’d had a relationship with a French girl, a Japanese girl, an American girl, a Filippina and she was there all the time – a Lancashire girl. I thought: ‘It’s a Lancashire girl I was looking for. Why didn’t I realize it?’
David Thewlis
I’d been a stepparent for about two years with a woman who had a child, and I came to realize I adored children and was good with them. So I was very happy when Anna got pregnant.
David Thewlis
The making of ‘Naked’ was an absolutely phenomenal, mind-bending experience. That film was life-changing and put my career onto a whole different level.
David Thewlis
It’s certainly not easy having to spend a lot of time apart, and having a five-year-old child who’s got to be at school. So we need to learn how to organize our time really well because for months we will be in two different countries.
David Thewlis
I keep myself content by doing lots of different stuff and make sure that my next role is completely different to the last. I just enjoy the versatility of it, the challenge of doing lots of different things. It keeps the job interesting.
David Thewlis
It wasn’t a good idea to work on ‘Naked’ in the first months of a marriage. I was living apart from my wife in a flat overflowing with books I was reading for the part.
David Thewlis
After Cannes, my agent told me to get the next flight to LA. He was right. I had a part in ‘Prime Suspect 3’ by the end of the week.
David Thewlis
I’m not one of those people who’s against doing remakes.
David Thewlis
I thought ‘Charlie And The Chocolate Factory’ was terrible. I’m a big fan of Johnny Depp and Tim Burton, so I don’t know what went wrong with that.
David Thewlis
I’m often cast as religious figures, good and bad, such as ‘Kingdom Of Heaven.’
David Thewlis
In ‘Seven Years In Tibet,’ I played a Buddhist. But I’m not religious at all, really.
David Thewlis
For years, I’ve been mistaken for Rhys Ifans. All the time. People come up and say, ‘Notting Hill?’ I nearly got beaten up once for not being Rhys.
David Thewlis
The thing about ‘Harry Potter’ is it’s great fun because of the people – I was usually with Julie Walters and Mark Williams, Brendan Gleeson, Robbie Coltrane, and the kids. Wonderful, funny, amazing people. If you’re going to hang around on a set bored, you might as well do it with Julie Walters.
David Thewlis
I’ve always loved writing. It was always what I wanted to do.
David Thewlis
Publishing a novel was such a proud thing for me. When I was a kid, I used to say to my mum and dad, ‘I’m going to write a book. You’ll see.’ So when I did ,and it was published, and people liked it, it was great.
David Thewlis
I’ve been offered TV things over the years, but usually, that’s about that I don’t want to be away from home for that long, because it’s a long time to be away your home country and my family.
David Thewlis
I am the sort of guy who does go to modern art shows.
David Thewlis
I paint a bit myself. My house in Clerkenwell has a room that is done up like a big installation.
David Thewlis
No matter what one looks at and finds temporarily pleasing, it can never be as beautiful as just a tree, really.
David Thewlis
You always have to look for something beautiful wherever you go.
David Thewlis
You can’t actually be just a movie actor in Britain, because we don’t make that many movies.
David Thewlis
We didn’t need the Internet for Nazi Germany to happen. But I feel like there’s this lack of humanity because of it.
David Thewlis
The world is enormously dangerous and scary. I worry very much for my daughter. I’m not sure we’re in control any more, and I think the Internet is partly responsible for that.
David Thewlis
Dad worked in the same shop, behind the same counter, five or six days a week, for 38 years, and hated it.
David Thewlis
Naked’ kind of kicked me off into the film world. It just so happens that all of the things that I have been offered have been films, and I’ve enjoyed the travel that goes along with that.
David Thewlis
I usually do watch what I’ve done because I think it’s important. I think you can learn from it and see what you thought you were doing and what ends up on the screen.
David Thewlis
What we do is ridiculous! I think that even when what I’m doing is serious, even when I’m not turning into a werewolf. It’s a silly thing to do, isn’t it? It’s what you do in the playground when you’re kids – but actors just never stop doing it.
David Thewlis
I started doing the big Hollywood stuff, and I realised, ‘Oh, there’s no rehearsal at all; you just turn up on the set, and sometimes you haven’t even met the other actor, or the woman who’s playing your wife, and you’re suddenly in bed with them.’
David Thewlis
I must have read three-quarters of ‘Anna Karenina’ on my phone. Which might be a record.
David Thewlis
I adore children. If I weren’t an actor, I would be a teacher or work with small children in some way. I feel happy in their company.
David Thewlis
I think the most beautiful sound is a child laughing.
David Thewlis
Trying to keep a relationship going on the phone is disastrous.
David Thewlis
Playing a character who becomes a Buddhist was a great experience.
David Thewlis
In the prepping for ‘Azkaban,’ I read ‘Azkaban’ and ‘Goblet of Fire.’
David Thewlis
Most parts I’ve played since ‘Naked,’ I can barely remember who they were, let alone repeat any lines.
David Thewlis
I like time off. I’m not a workaholic.
David Thewlis
I like tourists. I think it’s nice to live in a town that people come from all over to visit.
David Thewlis
I really like Los Angeles. I like the weather, the openness of it, the beach, the mountains, the desert. I find it inspiring. I get quite a lot of writing done out there.
David Thewlis
I was interested in the idea of celebrity… some very untalented people getting very successful and making a lot of money for not a lot of work, sometimes.
David Thewlis
It’s a bit odd to have a daughter who sounds American.
David Thewlis
You become judged entirely on your ability to bring in the dollars, and the fact that none of the films I did was a huge hit became significant.
David Thewlis
People sometimes say, ‘Why do you choose a part?’ and sometimes it’s not that I chose it but that that was the one that came along.
David Thewlis
I did ‘Basic Instinct 2’ because I had a baby about to be born, and the director said we could shoot before the due date.
David Thewlis
I’ve always tended to write comedy, but I’d hate to just write some kind of sitcom or a lighthearted series of jokes and slapstick. I wanted to talk about some deeper things within the comedy.
David Thewlis
I would consider myself one of the least misogynistic men in the country – if anything, just the opposite.
David Thewlis
I’m much more Buddhist. I mean, I’m not a Buddhist. I should be so lucky to be a Buddhist, a real Buddhist, but of all the things I investigated, that seems to make the most sense to me.
David Thewlis
I kind of drifted into acting through a series of coincidences.
David Thewlis
I had no idea how one became an actor. I didn’t know things such as drama schools existed. It all just sort of happened accidentally.
David Thewlis
It’s not the easiest thing to have two actors in a family.
David Thewlis
It was so boring, and ‘Dragonheart’ was so unchallenging – there was no research involved or any rehearsal. So I was in my hotel room every night with no English-language TV except ‘Beavis and Butt-head’ at 10 o’clock every night.
David Thewlis
I love being a dad.
David Thewlis
I had grown up in a toy shop in Blackpool and then moved to London to do an acting course.
David Thewlis
I’ve never been that bothered about doing stage or television. I just love doing films. With theatre, it goes on night after night.
David Thewlis
One can only improvise what one knows.
David Thewlis
Naked’ propelled me into a whole other league. America started calling. I went over to Los Angeles and met all those people, and I started doing a few American films of various levels of quality.
David Thewlis