I really want to play Princess Leia. Stick some big pastries on my head. Now that would be interesting.

Then I left school at 16 and worked in Perth Repertory Theatre, which was quite nearby where I lived. And I worked there for about six or seven months, as part of the stage crew.

As a child I was taken to the pantomime or the theatre and I would always, always fall in love with somebody on the stage. And want to have sex with them.

Ultimately, you have to not worry about people thinking you should have played him differently. You`re the one playing the part so it has to be yours.

Conservative`s the last thing I am.

I left halfway through my third year to start Lipstick On Your Collar, which was the first thing I ever did.

I`m just looking for that moment to drop my Jedi knickers and pull out my real light saber.

It`s not my job to try and alter the director`s style - he`s in charge, and I`ll always give him my trust.

So, no, I`m not trying to crack into Hollywood, although I`ll make films there if they`re good scripts.

I never imagined it wouldn`t work out for me. I had that absolute certainty in myself that has seen me through, I think, and my parents were absolutely behind me all the way.

I`m fiercely proud to be Scottish.

I chose to live in London, and I love it there. But I`m Scottish through and through. It`s a great place, a beautiful land and a beautiful people.

At school there was no acting to be had other than school plays which I did now and again.

A lot of parents tell their children that if they want to be an actor, that`s fine, but they should do something else first, so they`ve got something to fall back on. It doesn`t work like that, as far as I`m concerned.

From there I did a one year theatre acting course in Fife, and then three years of drama school in London.

The other two things are... well, I had a huge appetite for old black and white movies on BBC 2. At the weekends they used to run matinees, and the more romantic the better.

I`ve done nudity in lots of things before. It`s something that`s never particularly bothered me.

Clara`s 16 months, and she`s really brilliant. She started talking, half in French and half in English. I don`t speak French near as well as her.

If you`re suddenly doing something you don`t want to do for four years, just so you`ve got something to fall back on, by the time you come out you don`t have that 16-year-old drive any more and you`ll spend your life doing something you never wanted to do in the first place.

I`m sure it`s not great fun for them, or for any parent, when their child says they want to be an actor, `cos it`s quite an uncertain business and it can be terribly hard for most actors.

I certainly have no plans to leave London. It`s a great town.

No, I`m putting it away, trying to buy a house for my family. The goal is to use the money to move into a big house, so my daughter can have a garden.

I`ve played in pipe bands in Scotland, and I`ve always played guitars and drums and stuff.

I`m just into making quality stuff if I can, with interesting people and good scripts. But it`s very important that it`s about something and that it says something. Otherwise, I don`t know what the point is, really.

No, I haven`t got any tattoos. Not yet.

The beautiful thing about it is that no two directors or actors work the same way. You also learn not to be afraid of discussion and conflict.

I left it for seven years before going back on stage. I know now not to leave it so long.

No, no I`m not, no, but I just think... when people are naked it tells you a lot about their relationships.

My uncle would appear back from London, where he lived in the 70s, in sheepskin waistcoats and beads and no shoes. As an actor he had something about him that I liked and wanted to have. So that`s one element: to be like my uncle, to be different

It`s important, that spirit of youth, and when you`re 16 that can get you kickstarted.

I played music all through school and I kind of performed that way.

I remember in Shallow Grave I remember a few times when we`d only have to do one take. But when you did have to do more than one, you`d build on the one you`d done.

I like to dance, but it`s not my weekend activity. I`m not a clubber.

Mainly I was able to perform with music - I played the French horn, I would sing, and I was a drummer in the pipe band. So I think it was a way to show off.

Once you`ve agreed the script, you must be willing to go as far as it needs to go on set.

I was nine years old when I made up my mind that that was what I definitely wanted to do.

I`m not a guy who takes films for strong political messages.

I got married because I fell in love with this woman. I had a baby with her because we wanted to have children. But that`s not because of some philosophical ideal at all, no.

When I played Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars prequels, I had to transform myself into a young Alec Guinness. I watched his early work to see what he was like on screen. It is interesting how he is only remembered by people younger than myself for appearing in Star Wars. He played a wealth of characters in lots of films - it was like he was the British film industry.

From Velvet Goldmine (1998), I got fond of wearing nail polish and eye makeup. I used to wear it quite a lot. We all wear makeup when we go to events - men and women alike. I`ve also had some good makeup artists, and I like to let them have a good time. I don`t think we should pretend we`re not wearing makeup when we are. I quite like the look of it.

People are incredibly rude about it sometimes. Like, `What? You`re married?` Strange reaction to have. Proves what people`s ideas about marriage are. `We`re having a baby.` `What?` As if it`s the end of the world. Of course, it`s the start of a brilliant world.

I`ve got a black woolen hat and it`s got Pervert written across the front of it. It`s the name of the clothing label. And I was with my wife and my baby at the supermarket and I didn`t think. I just put my hat on Clara`s head, because it was cold. And the looks. I couldn`t figure out why I was getting death looks. And then I realized my 10-month old baby`s wearing a hat with the word Pervert written on it and these people were like, `There`s Satan! There`s Satan out with his kid!` And then I made a point of her wearing it every time we went there [On an experience during the filming of A Life Less Ordinary (1997) in Utah].

He`s quite extraordinary with his moves and spins. I think he was a baton girl in a past life [on his co-star Hayden Christensen].

My lightsaber flew out of my hands. No one tells you the sabers have about 10 `D`batteries in them. They burn your hands... I tossed the saber in the air and it ended up hitting a technician in the head. [Twist Magazine]

Nicole, Knickers, as I call her. I would swear, burp and fart in front of her. I`d try and embarrass her and she would pretend to be shocked. I always played up on that. It was a real elder sister-younger brother relationship.

I started watching golf for the first time yesterday. I`m really worried about myself. I was actually enjoying it.

He`s quite the gentleman, Obi-Wan. But I don`t think he`d have any problems pulling if he wanted to. You know, as a Jedi, he`s not allowed to fall in love or get involved with that. So I suppose by now, he`s just got really big balls. Empire Magazine June, 2002

I`ve always wanted to go to Hollywood, drive big cars and be in big movies. But I hope I won`t do just any film to become a star. I just want to carry on working, acting. I don`t want to direct or write. I think making films is brilliant. I get excited just going on a film set. Going on location is amazing, hanging about with all these film people doing their thing. If I bump into a star I get all star-struck.

I hated Clueless (1995) with a passion. I thought it would have been a really good film if someone had blown her head off at the end with a really huge gun. I mean, this rich bitch suddenly becomes charitable and then she`s okay? And then there`s the token black friend. It was so corrupt, so L.A., I hated it.

My dad saw my full package in The Pillow Book (1996) and said `I`m glad to see you inherited one of my major attributes`.

I`m naked a lot of the time, and they don`t try to frame planted pots in front of my dick like they do in most other films. It`s all part of the story, but they don`t zoom in on it or anything and go, `Cock shot!` I`ve been naked in almost everything I`ve been in, really. I have it written into my contract.

An airport customs inspector once recognized me from Trainspotting and strip searched me looking for drugs.

I smoke a lot. I drink far too much-I don`t exercise. I torture small animals. [Ewan On his sex appeal]

There is some really good crack when I come back here. This is where I learned to swear. [on coming home to Scotland.]

Lying down from 50 feet, I was perfect. So I could really kill someone. Which is always good to know [On learning how to use a gun in _Black Hawk Down (2001)_].

Starting with a party scene for 600 cast and end up singing on top of a giant elephant...does it get any better than this? [on Moulin Rouge]

I needed to go and just find out exactly what it meant to be out and having fun in a kind of hedonistic and debauched environment. That`s right, something I wasn`t familiar with. [on researching for Moulin Rouge]

In real life, you don`t get up with the sheet after you`ve had sex. It`s not like I`ll play a carpenter and wear nothing but a tool belt while constructing a dresser. That`s just not safe. Aussie Who Weekly 2002

"I like George Lucas and Tim Burton because there`s no messing about. No 100 takes of me walking through a door. They know what they want and when they get it, we move on. Naming no names but, with some directors, it`s take after take and take 22 is the exact same as the first one".

The guy who`s creating that character will create their responses off how you respond to their responses which aren`t there. It`s a nightmare! - about acting with digital characters in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones

"Movies are so draining. They pull away from the actor, but theater just fills you up. I needed my fix."

"I`ve always thought as an actor, I`m not very clever about that, not very clear on it. My choices aren`t about `OK, if I choose this film, that will let me carry on,` you know. Whether it is a big budget movie or a small budget movie, that isn`t part of my decision."

"Film-making is like a series of problems that need to be solved. And the excitement, the adrenaline that you get from making a small film is that you all have to pull together. You finish and you feel like you`re walking away from your family. I love that."

"I am a married man. I haven`t been personally involved with all my leading ladies. It would maybe be somewhat glamorous if I had been, but I have not."

My brother is two years older than me and he was brilliant at everything, it seemed. He was captain of the cricket and rugby teams. We had this rather archaic system of head boys and prefects at my school. I was in my fourth year - in Scotland we finish school in our sixth year - and my brother had become head boy and brilliant at everything: academia, sports. In fact, all the things I wasn`t good at. Then he left and I couldn`t get my head round anything, so I became depressed and got in trouble a lot. I remember my mother driving me one night through heavy rain, with the windscreen wipers going. It was the first half term of my fifth year and she said that she`d spoken to my dad and that I could leave school if I wanted to. I`d only assumed that I`d have to stick it out until I was 18, but here I was being offered the chance to leave at 16. My whole world opened up. I couldn`t believe it. And I was out, as soon as she said those words.

"It`s strange to explain off camera what you have done in this or that scene. How redundant, like an artist explaining his painting. As much as I like watching movies I`ve been in, I can`t watch myself in interviews. People shouldn`t know how we do it."

I love talking to kids about it, because they have great questions about how things work: "Do you have your lightsabre with you?" [on Star Wars Episode I & II]

Acting to mid-air is odd. There`s a perverse pleasure to it when you get it right, but often you don`t. Aliens are really hard. On the second one [Star Wars: Episode II] I was doing the scene with those tall ones - actually, I quite fancied the female one - and they`ve got actors there who will actually be providing the voices for the characters. They wore blue hard hats with cardboard cut-outs of heads taped on top of them. So you`ve got to remember not to talk to the people but to talk to the hats.

Doing the second one was interesting, because I`d never had to go back to play a character again. It was three years between the two episodes. It was a bit easier because I was more used to the technical demands. In other films you rehearse, crack the scene and shoot it. In Star Wars, that`s not the case. It`s a very different process with an enormous amount of blue-screen work. It`s very difficult - you play scenes with people who aren`t there. [on `Attack of the Clones`]

Then I watched the first episode of Star Wars over and over again. I loved it as a kid. It was a bit funny to be paid for it. I`d say to my wife, "I`ve got to go and watch Star Wars again, Sorry. I just haven`t quite got it..." Brilliant.

That was my challenge - to be a young Alec Guinness. People would come up and say to me, "You sound a bit like Alec Guinness. Did that just happen?" No! It`s my job, you know? The thrilling bit about it was I immersed myself in Alec Guinness movies, and I found this great one called The Card (1952). God, it`s a brilliant film.

...as an actor there`s nothing better than a great moody moment to play with nothing to say. It`s so much easier to do because you can really get inside your head.

It`s not my job to try and alter the director`s style - he`s in charge, and I`ll always give him my trust. I think what happens is that you learn how to deal with it if you`re not getting the support you need or if you`re not being pushed. Occasionally you`re doing two jobs at once: you`re fooling the director into thinking you`ve taken his note while doing what you think is better. It hasn`t happened very often, but it`s an awful thing when you lose your trust in a director. But it`s not for me to say.

It taught me a lesson which was an actor should not say, "I won`t do that." Once you`ve agreed the script, you must be willing to go as far as it needs to go on set. With some directors, you do the scene and they say that it`s fine, but you think to yourself, "Is that really enough? Is there not more?"

My uncle would appear back from London, where he lived in the 70s, in sheepskin waistcoats and beads and no shoes. As an actor he had something about him that I liked and wanted to have. So that`s one element: to be like my uncle, to be different.

"[My fans] say, `I`ve seen Star Wars and Moulin Rouge!. What else should we try to see you in?` I always tell `em to get The Pillow Book (1996). That would be a bit of an eye-opener for them, wouldn`t it?"

I fight cynicism. It`s too easy. It`s really boring. It`s much harder to be positive and see the wonder of everything. Cynicism is a bunch of people who aren`t as talented as other people, knocking them because they make them feel even more untalented.

I was with a friend of mine recently who was dying and while he was lying there with his family around his bed, I just knew that was it, that was the best you can hope for in life - to have your family and the people who love you around you at the end.

"I won`t buy into the Hollywood thing...I want to be in good movies."

"It`s a great feeling of power to be naked in front of people. We`re happy to watch actual incredible graphic violence and gore, but as soon as somebody`s naked it seems like the public goes a bit bananas about the whole thing."

"Isn`t Halle Berry the most beautiful woman? I have a film I`d like to be in her with. I mean, I`d like to be with her in." - At the 2002 Golden Globe Awards commenting to Melissa Rivers on Halle Berry, who just walked by.

"I`ve been waiting nearly twenty years to have my own light saber. Nothing`s cooler than being a Jedi Knight."

"I`m doing my bit for the women`s movement. The women have always been naked in movies and now I`m just desperate to take my clothes off as much as possible."

"Actually, I really want to play Princess Leia. Stick some big pastries on my head. Now, that would be interesting."