A law which attempts to say you can criticise and ridicule ideas as long as they are not religious ideas is a very peculiar law indeed. Rowan Atkinson More Quotes by Rowan Atkinson More Quotes From Rowan Atkinson I consider myself more of a visual comedian than a physical one. Rowan Atkinson visuals comedian The Scarlet Pimpernel is the most over-rated human being since Judas Iscariot won the A.D.31 'Best Disciple' competition. Rowan Atkinson judas scarlet competition But generally speaking, I tend to be quiet and introspective. Rowan Atkinson introspective quiet I have always worried about things more than I should. Rowan Atkinson worried should No, no, I was only funny on stage, really. I think I was funny as a person toward my classmates when I was very young. You know, when I was a child, up to about the age of 12. Rowan Atkinson age children thinking I'm not a collector. I don't like the toy cupboard syndrome that causes so many good cars to evaporate. Rowan Atkinson toys car causes Apart from the fact that your physical ability starts to decline, I also think someone in their fifties being childlike becomes a little sad. You've got to be careful. Rowan Atkinson littles facts thinking The good thing about those original credit card commercials was that they were very "filmic", they were like little movies, so it wasn't a big step to think well maybe we could make a big movie using this character, which we eventually did. Rowan Atkinson character cards thinking Without wanting to claim that I'm really like James Bond I would certainly prefer to be thought of as closer to James Bond than Mr. Bean most definitely. Rowan Atkinson beans claims I think in many ways Johnny English is a more believable character. Rowan Atkinson character way thinking It's the demand in many ways of modern television drama - it's very low key and naturalistic, and, generally speaking, the characters that I've played have not been low key and naturalistic. Rowan Atkinson keys character drama It was the challenge of that that I found daunting, but also engaging and interesting [to play Maigret]. Rowan Atkinson challenges play interesting The job is interesting, and the task is difficult, but the man [Maigret] is just a decent man doing a very ordinary job. Rowan Atkinson jobs men interesting The problem with Maigret is he hasn't got a limp, and he hasn't got a lisp, and he hasn't got a French accent, or a particular love of opera... or all those other things that people tend to attach to many fictional detectives. He's just an ordinary guy doing an extraordinary job, in a very interesting time. Rowan Atkinson jobs people interesting I tend to play rather odd men. People that are slightly odd or eccentric, or have a more particular attitude to life. Rowan Atkinson odd-man attitude men The decision to do it [play Maigret] was related to the fact that the character is a very ordinary man, and generally speaking I haven't played very many ordinary men. Rowan Atkinson play character men ITV and the production company contacted me and asked if I fancied playing the role [of Maigret]. It took me a long time to decide to do it. In fact, I decided not to. I thought about it for some weeks, and thought 'perhaps not' and it went away for a while, and then it sort of came back. They said 'Are you sure you don't want to play him?', so I thought about it for a lot longer again, and eventually decided that I would. Rowan Atkinson roles play long I love both [Johnny English and James Bond] actually. The action sequences are really exciting because you're getting to work with some brilliant crew and do some great stuff but you always get some magic when you're working with actors. Rowan Atkinson magic actors stuff Johnny English is someone who really means well it's just that he's not as good as he thinks he is, and I think that maybe that's the British male in a nutshell. Rowan Atkinson males mean thinking I suddenly think the job of acting is a difficult one. It's not as flip, irrelevant and shallow a calling as I thought it was in the Eighties. Rowan Atkinson acting jobs thinking