there was no way I could have accomplished the bin Laden operation without the help of Special Forces

But I need to show my work during the process. In the editing room, very often I invite friends and I do some test screenings with friends or people I know: editors, journalists sometimes. I ask them, Is it boring? Is it too long? What do you think?

My assistant, Mike Dunn, helps me with that.

You're missing it. This is not a one-man show. What's reinvigorating this company is two things: One, there's a lot of really talented people in this company who listened to the world tell them they were losers for a couple of years, and some of them were on the verge of starting to believe it themselves. But they're not losers. What they didn't have was a good set of coaches, a good plan.

Logistically, technically, shooting at 48 frames per second, working in 3D – those were all huge challenges. The biggest lessons were more logistical – decision making on a day to day level. It was a very complex schedule, always shifting. So, those were huge challenges. Stamina-wise, there were many, many challenges.

Preferably not as the guy who played Gollum.

23 June last year. The fact that certain people have chosen for us to come out of Europe is one of the saddest, divisive and unthought-through events in my lifetime.

A Leica.

It begins with knowing the story you want to tell. There are thousands of stories contained within the world that Samantha has created – we have to be very disciplined about opening up the world in a way that will lead us on to further investigation in the rest of the series. We need to find the emotional heart of the story; the relationships; the tension; the suspense and the drive; and of course working closely with Samantha is going to make it much easier.

It’s hard because I’m attached to so many of my roles for so many different reasons,” he says. “But I do have a special affinity with the role of Gollum because, not only was it an amazing character to play, but it spawned a huge change in direction of where I was going as an actor: working in the digital realm.