Andrew Lincoln

Andrew: I try to stay out of the debate really and just do my job, I think that the script that I read is very close to the novel and the people making it seemed to think that I was the right person for the job.

Andrew: I had to go the US and have gun training and horse  wrangling and basically learn to be a cowboy. There are some really beautifully written iconic sequences in the opening episodes that I won’t give away.  They’re all about classic story telling but there is a lot of space for character development.

Andrew: I have, I did a pilot a few years ago with Barry Sonnenfeld, the  guy who directed Men in Black, where I was playing a New York lawyer, but the writers strike kicked off just as we finished filming and they didn’t go with it.

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Andrew: I find it very hard to pick, I love It’s a Wonderful Life, it’s a perfect movie and Jimmy Stuart is one of my favourite actors. Some Like It Hot has got some of the greatest lines in movie history and it was so out there, cross dressing gangster caper… what were they thinking?! That’s the thing that I admire about America, there is that ambition, cinema is their first language.

Andrew: Every single day! The great thing about Teachers is you never  know how things are going to turn out and be received, there was a lot of  ad-libbing and anarchy but it was really useful for the show and infectious and it worked. It was such a privilege.

Andrew: I don’t know, I’m too old to do anything else! I can’t not work as there is something in me, a very strong work ethic, and it’s about self-esteem. At the end of the day, you do something, you get praised for it and you get self esteem. I do a lot of charity work for Barnardos on the youth development side of things, they have a project called The Heart which is brilliant and helps kids that maybe don’t do as well in school and don’t find their strengths and you can see the great effect it has on their esteem. I do a lot of charity work for Barnardos on the youth development side they have a project called The Heart which is brilliant and helps kids that maybe don’t do as well in school and don’t find there strengths and you can see the great effect it has on these kids. It’s very important to me to help and support kids and I feel very attached.

Andrew: I cook a bit and I’m learning to play the piano. I love surfing but I wouldn’t say it was a talent of mine.

Andrew: It depends on what kind of director you are working for. I don’t feel that my technique changes that much, but on stage there is a more technical aspect, you need more voice. I don’t like reading articles on actors telling you how to act and I don’t want to do that, it always sounds really pretentious. Another great thing about my job is that you get to learn all day, I particularly love working with younger actors that are coming through because they bring new ideas and a new energy. The most important thing that I keep in mind is to respect all actors and the way they work. I’ve been on sets and watched actors and thought to myself ‘what are you doing?!’ and then you watch it back and think ‘that was fucking beautiful’, you see it on screen and it can be amazing. It’s quite a scary thing to do acting and the older I get the more I realise how exposing it is and how difficult it is.

Andrew: Roger Mitchell is a director I’ve worked with and would bend over backwards to work with again! Whatever he wanted me to do I would do, he truly is a great man and a great director. If someone had told me that I would be working with Frank Darabont next year I would have bitten their hand off, we did the screen test together and I really enjoyed working with him. With actors you find invariably that the more successful they are the nicer they are and the more I enjoy working with them. Mark Ryan is the best theatre actor we’ve got- that’s the only thing I’ll commit to- he is incredible.

Andrew: Yeah, I’m working on a film scripted with a friend of mine. We’ve been working on it for a couple of years and hopefully in the next few months we will have a draft and I want to direct it. Hopefully the American film timing will give me space to do that and get it into production, but my life is really difficult and we can’t even book a holiday at the moment!

Andrew: I directed two episodes of Teachers and got shortlisted for a BAFTA. I was really proud of that it’s such a brilliantly creative process.

Andrew: I leave socks around the house and I’m quite untidy.