Judi Dench and Ian McKellen taught me how to work hard and respect the theatre.
I've been grateful enough, smart enough to take the work with Ian McKellen in Gods And Monsters
Soon after I'd had my son I really wasn't planning on going back to work for a while. I will walk over hot coals to work with Bill Condon on anything, the experience that you have with him is just too good. I've certainly never worked with him before so the trio of Bill [Codon], Ian [ McKellen], and Sherlock Holmes, and England: it was too much to say "no" to.
That's one of the challenges of acting. You can't expect that you're going to be successful, but you've got to put your heart and everything you have into it. Look at a guy like Ian McKellen, who is eighty or whatever, and he's just loving his work and you can see that in the work. That defines what type of actor you are. And what kind of people want to work with you. And whether you can do this job for a long, long time.