Owain Yeoman

My mom was a history teacher, so I couldn't really avoid history when I was growing up. But we're very light on American history. We don't really have great opportunities to study both the Civil War and the Revolution.

Oh my goodness me, Daniel Day-Lewis - huge, huge fan of his. I've always loved his philosophy on acting: he always talks about returning to a state of play.

Since I finished on 'The Mentalist,' I didn't need to be so near to the studio, so we decided to move a bit further out where you can get more house for your money, too. It definitely feels more like home.

Being typecast is the enemy of any actor, so if you can try to do something that flips on the head peoples' ideas of who you are or what you can do, that's my biggest aim.

I didn't want to be an accountant; I found myself being a banker, which was a bit different. I went to university, and I was going to do a Ph.D. in the States, but I didn't get the funding for it, so I had two years where I had a bit of a wobble and didn't really know what I wanted to do, and I ended up working as a banker.

I love a challenge, and I love challenging people's preconceptions.

I love Wales, and Cardiff is great, but if I could just have the weather we have in California, it would be perfect.

I'm a voracious reader, and I love to throw myself into it.

I've done all the table reads for Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow for all the pirate movies, because he's just been doing other stuff, and I just love the whole Jack Sparrow thing he's got going on; it is just genius, and I just think he has so much fun with it.

I think from an actor's point of view, you always want something to play that's dramatic or something that feels like it could be very bold in choice. And of course, the boldest possible choice you could play at the end of a character's life is death.

If the day comes where I can have my own action figure... I defy any actor to say that's not a good day.

I went from working with Spielberg to working with Clint Eastwood - I might as well just retire.