James Nesbitt
James Nesbitt
William James Nesbitt, OBEis an actor and presenter from Northern Ireland. Born in Ballymena, County Antrim, Nesbitt grew up in the nearby village of Broughshane, before moving to Coleraine, County Londonderry. He wanted to become a teacher like his father, so he began a degree in French at the University of Ulster. He dropped out after a year when he decided to become an actor, and transferred to the Central School of Speech and Drama in London. After graduating in...
NationalityIrish
ProfessionTV Actor
Date of Birth15 January 1965
CountryIreland
It's easier to act in your own accent.
Although surgeons know how to deal with bits of the brain, they don't really know how it works.
A lot of people of my Ulster Protestant background would have been very suspicious of the notion of a film about Bloody Sunday. Our fear would have been that it would be terribly anti-Britain and anti-soldiers: a piece of nationalist propaganda.
It's hard to make a film in Britain. It's hard to raise money. The best stuff that is shot on film in Britain is usually shot on film for television.
People don't watch TV only to relate to stuff. They also watch to find out about a world they can't relate to.
Northern Ireland has treated me well, you know?
There's some irony in playing a journalist after some of the stuff that has been written about me, but it's a great profession, particularly investigative journalism.
There's no such thing as unwanted attention for an actor.
I started a French degree at university, but packed it in when I realised I really wanted to be an actor.
I spend an awful lot of time by myself and enjoy that.
I've never felt that acting was my vocation - never had that tortured thing. I love acting, but it doesn't feed my soul.
I've always been a family man and count myself as one of those who are lucky to have the comfort of a family.
Perhaps our imagination needs crime stories to fulfill some craving we have, as a way to assuage a darkness in ourselves.
Perhaps not being very self-aware in the past masked depression. I think I was confused. I think I was immature. I think I probably was quite depressed.