Eoin Macken

A lot of fashion photographers are telling a story with their pictures.

I learnt how acting is more about listening to the other person; it is about reaction. You learn to be a foil, and that helped when it came to directing.

I love the idea of playing a character, to get that chance to be somebody completely different.

In a modelling shoot you are trying to play a character, a role. There are models who are dead, who have no expression whatever. I think you need to use your physicality, your sense of humour and your emotion when you model.

My novel, 'Kingdom of Scars', is a coming-of-age story.

With acting, you have to put in the groundwork, then maybe you'll get lucky. It's a slog but it's also fun.

I stumbled into acting. My dad, James, was a barrister but he was always very creative and he loved theatre and the arts.

I love acting, but I hate being in front of camera - I get really awkward. I hate being the centre of attention.

All I've wanted to do is write. In school I just wanted to be a writer but I was afraid to be a writer because I felt I couldn't. It didn't really feel like my writing was interesting enough, so getting a book published was a huge kick.

I go through periods where I feel very confident about stuff but other periods that are insecure... I find doing different stuff removes the responsibility of focussing on one thing.

When you write a book, people legitimise it by actually reading the book and so it's almost okay to write another one.

When I was a kid, growing up, I used to write a lot of stories.

I think modelling helped me. I was very shy and self-conscious when I went to college, and I think in some ways modelling exacerbates those things - because it's all about you being the centre of attention - but it also helped me travel.

I don't think I ever really thought I was good-looking.

I was just fascinated with the brain and the mind, and I found psychology engaging for writing about people, and that fed into my interest in cinema.

Because I don't understand what would be someone's motives to want to go into space, where you're possibly going to die, and to try to meet an entity that may or may not be benevolent or want to kill you.

I used to read a lot of Isaac Asimov and Philip Dick and 'Inland Empire's' one of the earlier books I read!

I love science fiction just because of the scope of what it can be.

I love Sci-Fi. It's pretty much all I watch.

Every part of it is important; the film comes alive when you edit it, the film comes alive when you write it, the film comes alive when you act it, and the same with the directing. They're all the most important part at the time and that's why I enjoy doing it, because you're creating a story and every part is a very integral part of it.