George MacKay

I got to do school properly and all the stuff that you should do when you're young and teenage: first friends, first girlfriends. It wasn't like I needed to be doing acting.

If you've got a camera that's two feet away from you, you have to bring it all back down. It's a lot more insular. It's different brush strokes. Whereas on stage, you're playing to people who, depending on the size of the theater, might be 40 meters away from you.

I want as much as I can to try and explore different roles and different characters; that's important to me to get involved in as many different parts as I can.

What I'd like to do is try as many different ways of working as possible. That's what I'm looking to do - collaborate with as many different directors.

Diversity is best in all contexts.

I had to try to understand how much of a taboo it was. My mum worked in ballet and theatre when she was younger, and I had been brought up around lots of gay people, so I had never had any issue and couldn't imagine how hard it was to be out.

My mum was a costume designer and costume supervisor in the theater and, especially, the ballet. But that was before I was born.

Reading nice stuff about you is lovely, but I know it's going to be soul-destroying when you do something that everyone is tearing apart.

I guess I'm taking for granted how open my parents are.

There's a loyalty attached to football, and it is more communal than theatre. If you go to the football, it is part of the structure of your life. For lots of people, theatre is a treat.

When me and my sister were toddlers, it was 'The Jungle Book' literally every day. If it was lunchtime, it was 'Jungle Book' time.

Acting is all about creative ideas and sharing, so the more places those ideas come from, the better.