Paul McGann
Paul McGann
Paul John McGannis an English actor. He came to prominence for portraying Percy Toplis in the 1986 television serial The Monocled Mutineer. He later starred in the 1987 dark comedy Withnail and I, and as the eighth incarnation of the Doctor in the 1996 Doctor Who television film, a role he reprised in more than 70 audio dramas and the 2013 mini-episode "The Night of the Doctor". McGann is also known for playing Lieutenant William Bush, Horatio Hornblower's best friend,...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionMovie Actor
Date of Birth14 November 1959
CityLiverpool, England
The power of telly is surprising. If you're in a six-part series, you're famous while it's on - people point in the street. Two weeks later it all goes back to normal.
I love humans; always seeing patterns in things that aren’t there.
As an actor, you get hired to repeat yourself. It wears you out.
Brighton gives me the heebie-jeebies. When I'm near the seafront I can't sleep, I can't eat.
Careers are what they are, they don't make any sense at all when you look back. We're not in charge of them.
I admire artists who are ageing and still retaining their edge.
I don't have a television. No. So, I don't watch anything.
I resent almost all of the time I spend in front of the television, but I find 'The Only Way Is Essex' absolutely riveting.
If you're in the so-called public eye you have to watch your P's and Q's.
Films are artifice. We're telling stories on film. At the same time, when it works, there is a real tough immediacy and spontaneity to it, and a punch.
I never thought I'd be one of those old hams who favours theatre over everything, but I'm getting that way. Telly and film seemed more fun when I was younger; turning left on planes and washing up in nice places. But there are things that you only learn in theatre.
I think you can make perfectly good television just from people who are genuinely interested, talking to people who genuinely know - simple as it sounds, it can be riveting.
I'm not a sci-fi lover; I wasn't from the start. So perhaps I miss that passion for other worlds, other dimensions, that sort of scope and that magnitude of storytelling; that's not my thing though I meet plenty of people whose thing it definitely is.
What I did, I did without choice...