We were filming 'Doctors' in Birmingham and they have the highest percentage of homeless people outside of London. You just have to walk down one of their busy streets to see that this issue is massive.
I love filming in London. In New York, every street is familiar because you have seen it in a movie. They mythologise their own city. You're forever trying to get down streets that have been blocked off because of shooting. In London, they don't put up with it; they're grumpy.
We must face the No. 1 critical issue of our day. It is youth crime in general and black-on-black crime in particular. There is nothing more painful to me at this stage in my life than to walk down the street and hear footsteps and start thinking about robbery. Then look around and see somebody white and feel relieved. After all we have been through, just to think we can't walk down our own streets, how humiliating.
Seriously, if I switched on the TV and they were showing live footage of an army of fire-breathing pterodactyls machine-gunning people to death on the streets of London right outside my door, I'd be horrified, but not entirely surprised, nor any more scared than I already am. I'd probably just shrug and wait for them to smash the door down. We're so screwed, I don't even know what to worry about first.
The first time I was homeless was when I went to Atlanta. I was in a homeless shelter, then when I got a job I used to miss the curfew for the shelter. So I ended up sleeping outside in the streets.
When I walk, I try to set a fairly brisk rate. I love walking outside. I hate machines like treadmills. The path that I have chosen to walk is just city streets, but you see pretty houses, trees... my routes have some hills in them; it's not just straight walking. You have to exercise your heart and lungs.
I've noticed that once you leave London you do kind of become a bit more famous. People in London are a bit too cool for school. It's not so unusual to see someone from London in the street. But outside of London people are a bit more excited to see you and come out and support you.
We were filming the West Wing on the set one day in DC and Madeleine Albright comes by the set. I mean, when does that happen? You turn around and there's the former Secretary of State just sitting there. After the Clinton administration finished we were filming right outside the White House and John Podesta comes walking up while we're out there filming. Just strolling by the set - the former Chief of Staff! Things like that would happen all the time.
Soccer players in L.A. can kind of just walk the streets. They have bigger people to take pictures of. They see Sylvester Stallone walking down the street, I don't think they are going to want an Ashley Cole picture, to be honest.
I am more interested in people's attitude than someone who is a perfect face. Every time I walk the streets of London, I see someone who interests me. It doesn't matter how old they are.
I have always loved to sit in ferry and railroad stations and watch the people, to walk on crowded streets, just walk along among the people, and see their faces, to be among people on street cars and trains and boats.
I wanted individuals who were clearly themselves and I just got to put some clothes on them, but they basically came "done," you know? How they feel comfortable. I just wanted them to walk down the streets of New York and I said, "You know what? Don't even pose, just walk and we'll take pictures."
Proportion ... You can't help thinking about it in these London streets, where it doesn't exist ... It's like listening to a symphony of cats to walk along them. Senseless discords and a horrible disorder all the way ... We need no barbarians from outside; they're on the premises, all the time.
I love watching people, and that's what I do; just go for a walk at about 4 o'clock, and go down a busy street, where you see people coming out of school and you get a glimpse of their lives, what they're talking about.
The homeless often lose trust in people: in the hospital doctors, who had no choice but to discharge them back on to the streets, and in the family members from whom they have become estranged. Their past use of the NHS can make it difficult to patch together a full medical history.
Sunday-the doctor's paradise! Doctors at country clubs, doctors at the seaside, doctors with mistresses, doctors with wives, doctors in church, doctors in yachts, doctors everywhere resolutely being people, not doctors.
I think it's really hard for teenage girls in London to just gently... have a life. Everything has to be organised for kids in London - you can't just walk three roads to see a friend.