Matthew Macfadyen
Matthew Macfadyen
David Matthew Macfadyenis a BAFTA award-winning English actor, known for his roles as MI5 Intelligence Officer Tom Quinn in the BBC television drama series Spooks, Fitzwilliam Darcy in the 2005 film of Pride & Prejudice and Daniel in the Frank Oz comedy Death at a Funeral. He is also known for portraying John Birt in the political drama Frost/Nixon, as well as Detective Inspector Edmund Reid in the BBC series Ripper Street. In 2015 he starred in the Sky Living...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionMovie Actor
Date of Birth17 October 1974
I don't feel like a romantic lead; I guess I feel more like a character actor.
I think it sits quite happily with me, the condition of being an actor. I see some people getting quite eaten up with it, with the insecurities. There are times when I long for continuity and stability, but I also love the idea of not knowing what I'll be doing next - or even if I'm going to work.
What's exciting is there's a curtain that divides the audience from this other world. You want to see behind.
Some British actors are snobby about telly, and I don't understand that.
It must be odd, being recognizable. I would hate to lose that anonymity.
I would hate not to do a play every couple of years. I think it's not me.
I love TV and I love making films and I love doing plays. I feel very lucky to be able to do all three.
I just loved the whole idea of being an actor.
I can't throw books away. My wife is always telling me to get rid of some.
You never know how films are going to do and it is daunting if I think about it.
There's always a concern as an actor that you'll be boring unless your character is swinging from a chandelier.
People like to think that actors are terribly worried about ghosts of other actors in the parts they play. But you just have to get on with it.
The security comes, as an actor, in knowing that you're not in control. If you try to control your career, or how people perceive you, you'll make yourself unhappy, because life doesn't work like that. So much is luck. It's much better to let yourself off, to think, 'There's nothing I can do.'
It's a real skill to be able to publicise yourself.