Kenneth Branagh

I'm involved in Northern Ireland Screen and have been for a long time, so I keep my eyes open and ears to the ground.

I think that short films often contain an originality, a creative freedom, an energy and an invention that is inspiring and entertaining. I think they are, as Shakespeare put it, a good deed in a naughty world.

Mozart had a tremendously fertile and creative ear for a catchy tune.

A creative and artistic home is what I've been looking for in the theatre.

What happens is that with difficult processes on a film, they get very intensely compressed because a clock is ticking.

There is some mysterious thing that goes on whereby, in the process of playing Shakespeare continuously, actors are surprised by the way the language actually acts on them.

Variety is very, very good. Going from medium to medium, if you get the chance to do it, from theater to television to film, which are all distinctly different, keeps me sharp. What works in one doesn't work in the other, and you have to be looking for the truth of the performance, whatever way that medium might demand.

I started being interested in acting when I heard the voices of Sir Laurence Olivier and Sir John Gielgud and Sir Alec Guinness. I've had the great privilege of working with Sir Derek Jacobi and Sir Anthony Hopkins. These are people who inspire the work that I do.

At the end of every stage performance, the audience all applaud me for doing my job, but I have friends who work in offices who don't get that.

What you want is the opportunity to work and an audience. Prizes after that are just a great big bonus.

I'm interested in creating new work.

The records - what little we know about Shakespeare, including the records of the plays in his playhouse - were often the story of how quickly they came off if they didn't work. They had to move on. They were absolutely led by box office.