Samuel Barnett
Samuel Barnett
Samuel Barnettis an English actor. He has performed on stage, film, television and radio, and achieved recognition for his work on the stage and film versions of The History Boys by Alan Bennett. His television performances include roles in the BBC comedy Twenty Twelve and in the Showtime drama Penny Dreadful. On 29 March 2016 it was announced that he had been cast in the lead role of Dirk Gently in BBC America's adaptation of BBC's Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionStage Actor
Date of Birth25 April 1980
In New York, I get people coming up to me because 'The History Boys' was such a hit on Broadway, and they show the film all the time on cable over there, so people recognise you.
I really admire paintings that look like an actual snapshot - I think that's just extraordinary.
I have been out of drama school for 13 years, so there are 13 years' worth of graduates behind me.
I never wanted to do Shakespeare; I never liked watching it, it's always frightened me, and I've never been any good at it. But I really wanted to work with the director Tim Carroll and Mark Rylance.
I want to be engaged and moved by theatre, there's nothing more disappointing than being left cold. After 'The Author,' I felt wrung out emotionally, like a used tissue.
Journalists have sometimes looked to my Twitter account and quoted me from there, and that's fine because that's public domain. I know exactly what I'm doing when I post something on Twitter; in a way, it's saying, 'This is who I am, and I don't have anything to hide.'