Hollywood doesn't trust me, and we don't really mix. When a movie has stars, everything in the budget goes up, even the catering costs. I just don't like the process of having Suits all around, so I prefer casting unknowns. It adds another level of tension - you don't quite know what to expect from them. My movies don't even need that much money.
I still don't really know what my style is. I like a lot of different kinds of comedy, I like watching it and I like being inventive and original. That's the problem with doing a longer set - you can't do every joke that you have because some stuff contradicts other stuff. Even when you know that the audience knows that you're joking and it's not true, you still can't do a joke about your family dying and then later talk about your Mom. I mean you want to keep some kind of cohesive order going.
I really like to know people from a lot of places. It's like the world is a really big city that you just keep meeting other people that you've met in different cities before. It's quite crazy, but it's quite nice.
The problem with being British... I don't know if it's me being British or being raised a strict Catholic, but you never really enjoy success.
When I'm writing columns, it's - all I'm thinking about is jokes, joke, joke, joke, setup, punch line, joke, joke, joke. And I really don't care where it goes.
I'm quite a reserved person, a bit shy at first when I don't know someone. I like to have a laugh and a joke; people have seen that in me.
At bottom the world isn't a joke. We only joke about it to avoid an issue with someone, to let someone know that we know he's there with his questions; to disarm him by seeming to have heard and done justice to his side of the standing argument.
I feel like I grew up in the circus. I know planes, trains and automobiles. And really talented, weird people.
People try to put ownership on things: 'That's mine, that's my joke.' No such thing. Like if you tripped or stumbled and people go, 'Oh, that's Charlie Chaplin.' You know what I mean? You can't own a joke. You can be the guy that tells it the best, but you can't own a joke. Nowhere can you own a laugh.
A lot of the time, the British press make me ashamed and embarrassed to be British. They give others the impression that the British are selfish, envious and bitter people, which is simply not true in my opinion. I think that British people in general are really nice and friendly.
I do not have a problem, I enjoy gambling, but I think people are trying to make it seem like I have a problem, because people really don't know.
The fact that 'Mom' is not joke, joke, joke - and is investing in these characters and their lives, things that really happen to people - I think it's resonating, and that's why people are tuning into it and not just dismissing it as a multi-cam sitcom.
One of the things about being raised British in Africa is that you get this double whammy of toughness. The continent in place itself made you quite tough. And then you've got this British mother whose entire being rejects 'coddling' in case it makes you too soft. So there's absolutely nothing standing between you and a fairly rough experience.
British audiences are toughest on British films. So often, a British film is the last thing they want to see. If you please them, you really know you've made an impact.
I know Im British. I havent spent much time in the U.K., but my parents are British, my family heritage is British, so if I wasnt British, what would I be? I am British.
But my answer to that question would have to be, aside from the obvious, which is the people and the relationships that you garner over a long period of time but the catering. The catering. They're the best. So it's the food.