Antony Sher

I was a weak kid, not good at what all the boys at school were good at and I found that by acting, by being other people, I could liberate myself from those inadequacies.

Life is just more comfortable if you're honest and open about everything. I spent so many years being in the closet about one thing or another.

As a gay Jewish white South African, I belong to quite a lot of minority groups. You constantly have to question who you are, what you are and whether you have the courage to be who you are.

My first career ambitions involved turning into a boy; I intended to be either a railway guard or a knight errant.

If every time you engage in a sex act, you go into a confession box, you will never accept your own sexuality.

I was a bit challenged when I was younger to stay on the right path.