Certainly there were so many different people I had as heroes growing up. Steve Martin is always my number one. David Letterman's show, that was important. And 'Saturday Night Live,' obviously.

I don't do a lot of strategizing, career-wise. I was approached by Chris and Phil, the guys who did 'The Lego Movie.' They gave me my first job on 'Clone High.' We've been friends forever, and they asked me if I wanted to write something with them.

Definitely, I did not, after 'SNL,' say, 'OK, first I'll go be in Alexander Payne's movie.' I thought I might go back to writing, to be honest.

Right before 'Nebraska,' I went to Ireland to do this little movie called 'Run & Jump.' It was so far away from home, I felt a real safety to explore a different kind of role. I loved how it turned out.

You have to have those times when your hunger and drive is in a different place because you're under pressure to have success.

Management always has a big influence on your success, no matter how good or how bad the business is itself.

I was, if you like, a successful schoolboy in that I had a degree of talent in all the required things that make you a success at school.

Team GB's success at the Beijing Olympics can, in part, be said to have been made in Manchester. For example, all the cycling medal winners trained at Manchester's velodrome, the National Cycling Centre.