Bill Nighy: 'I never watch my movies'

Rex Features

Bill Nighy has claimed that he does not watch his movies.

The actor told The Guardian that he is worried about his on-screen performances not matching up to his imagination.

Nighy said: "I try to never watch. It takes me so long to get over it and I'm always so downcast. I find it really distressing.

"Maybe when I'm very old, I'll sit down and watch my earlier work. But it will just depress the hell out of me. I'm sure I'm not alone in this. It's not like I'm some weirdo."

He added: "You just see how far short it falls from where you might have imagined you were heading. I have a perfectly average skewed perception of myself. We often don't know what we're like. I hope that's the case because otherwise I'll kill myself."

Of his late success, he said: "I am not suddenly the greatest actor in the world. I've just been extremely fortunate. And I'm not being coy or modest.

"More people saw me in Love Actually than had seen me in everything else I had ever done up to that point. That single thing accounts for what they call a late flowering."