Tom Riley quotes:

I went to university in the north of England at University of Birmingham to do an English literature degree, and I knew I could do extracurricular stuff with theater and drama. I started a theater company, called Article 19, and I did it with a bunch of friends. I wrote and directed plays. I had a radio show.

The other great innovation are things like Transparent or One Mississippi on Amazon, Master of None on Netflix, and those half-hours. It's a lot easier to watch a load of those because it's far more palatable to go, "You know, I'm just going to do one more of these."

I loved Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton's 'Inside No 9.' The way that they constrained each episode to a single location, then tasked themselves with including completely new characters every week, within a single half-hour.

The thing about 'Doctor Who' is it's chased around the world, so there's 50 fans hanging out at every location.

Relentless Forward Motion!

The thing about Doctor Who is it's chased around the world, so there's 50 fans hanging out at every location,

I worked in restaurants, bars, record stores; I did anything and everything to pay my way through university and LAMDA.

I love to run. When the weather's bad, I should get on the treadmill in the basement gym of my apartment building, but I lack the motivation.

University was a chance to people-watch and to mix with people from all various walks of life, which as an actor is a great experience because you get to observe people.

Oliver [Goldstick] is a very dynamic and imaginative writer, so the stage directions were visceral and very clearly written.

I'm quite lucky in that at certain angles I look all right, and at others I don't look so good, which enables me to play some leading roles and some stranger, more 'character'-type parts. I wouldn't say I'm the conventional handsome Hollywood leading man.

Like for Einstein, and for people who create nuclear weapons, the problem with the pursuit of knowledge and the pursuit of the greater good is that it invariably leads to things you weren't expecting.

New York is fantastic, and I've done several films in Los Angeles which I really enjoyed, but I don't think that America is the be-all and end-all. I'll follow the good work wherever it may be.

In America, celebrities who go to see your show will come backstage and introduce themselves. Meeting Annette Bening and Ethan Hawke that way was amazing, but when Tom Hanks came, it was really special - I've loved him since I first saw him in 'Big!'

I didn't know about the fashion world, or at least I took it for slightly superficial. I didn't realize the extent of it.

Prior to [streaming], the idea of sitting down and watching a show every week seemed like a great idea.

I feel like the experience I gained at university has really helped to inform me as far as who I wanted to become as an actor and what I wanted to do.

What you don't get necessarily at drama school is a gigantic mix of people. At university, there's people from every social background, and you get to go through that period of being naive and not quite sure who you're going to be.

There's a certain aura when a superstar like Brad Pitt walks into a room - I've seen it myself - but it comes from everyone else going, 'Aaaahhh!!' That's what you have to deal with, people looking at you and whispering. That would be the strangest thing, feeling the change as you walk in a room and trying to ignore it. But I think I could cope!

Performing on stage is my first love - it's why I wanted to be an actor in the first place - and 'Arcadia' is the highlight of my career so far. I love the intimacy of a live theatre audience - you can really squeeze every last drop out of each scene.

I remember clearly watching a 'Sooty Show' at a theatre and telling my mum I wanted to be up with the puppets, not in the audience.

I just think streaming feels like it's the future. It allows people to watch things in a way that fits into their lives.

I went to London Fashion Week for the first time, after I got the job [on The Collection ], and it completely changed the way I perceived it. I thought, "This is a far bigger operation than I ever expected, and it has far more worth than I ever gave it before." It definitely changed my view of the fashion world.

I'd like to say that I'm a binge-watcher, but I don't really have time. I think the most I've done in a sit-down is three episodes, maybe. It depends.

It was very much that feeling of having worked so hard on Da Vinci's for three years without seeing sunlight that, unless the right thing came along, I didn't want to do it.

It's an art installation to put out a collection, with the people behind the scenes who are inventing and creating these designs and making sure they're realized on the catwalk, and just how much hangs on it for the designers. Their livelihoods hang in the balance, as far as whether this year's collection works for them or not, and there are so many people's jobs on the line, as a result of that. I just had no idea.

My fishing hole is deader than...a dead thing that's dead.

The minute you're offered another option, you're like, "You mean, I can watch this every week, if I want to, or twice this week, if I need to, and not next week, if I don't have time?" I didn't even realize it was something we wanted or needed, which is where all great innovations come from.

The other great thing about it, that seems to be the case in streaming, is that a lot more scripts are written before you start. Because they are planning on allowing it all up at one time, you have four or five scripts to read and an outline of where it's going to go. The writers aren't chasing their tails as much. You're able to see the beginning, middle and end of a storyline, and that is rare. Streaming allows that, in a way that network TV doesn't.

When you change a lead actor, everything's going to change - but you can rest assured he's going to absolutely smash it.