Presumably theres a lot of preparatory work that goes into building your characters.

Yes, theres a deal.

Maybe its a laziness or lack of confidence about which way to go into it.

Depends what its in.

You think your confidence may be high dramatically, but you wont have any sensibility of it.

Not, specifically regarding this.

No, but at all, youve heard it at all?

Im familiar with the term in general.

After a while you think, you dont need to worry about that, get that sorted out.

And I cant even see it now.

I was hypersensitive to it.

So you lose awareness…

Yes, you’ve got the option to train it away.

You learn what to phase out.

Youre probably not going to hit something, but an idiot may run out in front of you.

So when you come up to a junction, watch what you do.

No, hes OK, its not an idiot, its a human being, and you go on.

Thats what I found that I did, which I think everyone does.

Im going to be hyper-aware driving home now.

Thats something really interesting.

I never really considered that before.

At some point, presumably, those people cease to be themselves, as far as youre concerned.

How quickly does that happen?

Once the film is up and running, instantaneously.

Like a light switch, like switching a light on and off, boom, its gone.

Youre still not seeing them.

Youre trying have you ever had a train set?

And once thats in, theyve probably got themselves on the tracks.

How do you turn off the bits of you?

We can train ourselves to do this.

Hopefully after a short while.

So its not that, I didnt find it that tricky.

I actively turned them down to zero, and that, I think, is unusual.

I dont think anyone would analyse it that much to realise that they should do that.

Because Im not doing anything, Ive just switched everything off.

Which performance do you think was the turnaround?

I learned, theres a film calledCircus, I was offered this rather flash character.

David Logan wrote it.

Everyone was lying to each other, there was so much lying going on, I loved it.

Thats where I began to turn.

I do know somebody said Why is he trying to be a so-so actor when hes a brilliant comedian?

That was an interesting quote, and the answer is because I used to be a so-so comedian.

Youve spoken about the Hollywood TV series process.

You mean the American TV series being compared toVictoria & Abdul?Victoria & Abdulwas higher budget.

Theres Judi Dench in it.

And the TV series, theres a lot of low-budget movies done in America.

We were doing 45 minutes of drama shot in seven days.

Thats not, that means thats a full hour-and-a-half movie shot in two weeks.

Thats kind of rare.

Its just big-budget movies over here, Ridley Scott will make British movies with a big budget.

Thats definitely where youre working towards?

I think actor slash comedian.

Im up for the Slashie award.

I know the press resolutely says comedian and just dropped the actor off for the last twenty-four years.

Very true, I suppose.

I think he got his trajectory going much quicker than I did.

Was it four nominations?

I think three nominations, and one supporting actor Oscar.

So yes, thats a place I would like to get to.

Im not saying, What did Robin do?

But for some reason I dont do that with Robin.

Who do you do it with?

I dont know if I do it with anyone, but I do…

Okay, well Clint Eastwood.

Or is he late 80s?

Ill direct it, now who should I get… so you make that all happen.

So theres an interesting place that I need to get to, I need to head in that direction.

Thats why Im writing my own movies now.

Will you be directing as well?

Not the first one, maybe the second, but yes, I think I have to.

I think thats what I have to do.

I need to do that one.

I need to get to that place.

Its a wonderful film, very much disliked when it came out, and they got it wrong.

Over the years, theyve gone, no, this is good.

Its a really interesting film.

But its a marvellous story, I just watched it again.

Eddie Izzard, thank you very much.

Victoria And Abdulis in UK cinemas from Friday.