EF: Born in Liverpool...thought you'd study law?

JI: Yeah, well I went off to do something sensible. I've always been a very rational person. My brother had studied law, and it seemed like a...I didn't know what I wanted to do, and it seemed like what smart people might want to do with their lives.

EF: Did you have acting in the background?

JI: Never, never. I don't really remember going to the theatre. The only thing I'd ever seen were probably pantomimes, which in England means something different than in America...you know, kind of like kid's shows. "Peter Pan", strangely enough. But I went to university and I thought I would do a little bit of everything. I thought I would do parachuting, and I'd play soccer, and I'd do a play, and I'd do all the things offered to you as a student. Go out and drink in stupid amounts and everything else. And I wandered into a rehearsal room and did an audition and did my first play and I was absolutely hooked. I mean, suddenly, here was this world...first of all, instant camaraderie. It didn't matter what your funny accent was or where you came from or how much money you did or didn't have or what your background was, because there was an instant, equalising bond. Plus, it was a completely irrational world. Everything at that point in my life had come from trying to be smart enough or clever enough, and that stuff just doesn't help you as an actor. It's about emotions and instincts and humanity. And I got to meet girls. :: laughs :: It's an old, corny cliché, but true. First of all, we always had to share a dressing room, so you got to see people naked, but :: sarcastically :: hey, it's just because we're being practical.

EF: :: chuckles :: That's right. It's just part of the job.

JI: And that's where all my first girlfriends came from, and, in fact, it's where my long-term partner has come from. I was too shy to ever chat anyone up.

EF: So the plays themselves were a series of dramas?

JI: I did a play every term, and then I did two plays a term, and then I started going to the Edinburgh Festival in the summer, and then I started doing fringe plays at Christmas, and then it came time to leave university, and it was time to be a lawyer. You know, all that kinda fun, hobby, drama stuff was just one of those things I would have done when I was young. But some of the people I'd been doing it with were applying for drama school which, to me, was insane. I mean, I had also played soccer for my college, and the idea that I was gonna write to Manchester United and see if they would take me on was equally ludicrous. But they were applying for drama schools, and it was cheap just to apply. It was a day out in London, and I thought I would apply and if I got in somewhere...well, I would know, or I'd keep the letter and frame it and show it to my grandchildren or something...whatever.

EF: Because you'd actually graduated with a law degree, is that it?

JI: Well, I was about to graduate. It was February, and the final exams were in June. But the auditions were in February. And, uh, it's embarrassing, but true, actually...I think I'm an actor because I'm English and too polite. No, I didn't get a letter accepting me; a lady came out of the room, a woman named Jane Carroll (sp?), who's dead now, unfortunately, but she was a great voice teacher at Central, the school I eventually went to. She came out and she said, "We'd very much like to offer you a place in September," and I went, "...Oh." And she said, "You do want to come, don't you?" and I went, "Yuhh...uhhh, yes, of course..." Then she said, "Because, you know, these places are highly contested, thousands of people, so don't mess us around. If you don't want the place, tell us now," and I went, "No, no, of course, I wouldn't, I mean, yes, no, I'd love to come." And I remember leaving vividly, walking down the street at 20, or whatever I was, thinking, "I might have just decided the rest of my life because I was too embarrassed to say no."

EF: The next two Harry Potter films...can we count on you?

JI: I am in book four, which is seven hundred pages. So they're either going to cut it, I think, or make two films out of it. Whatever they're going to do, I signed a contract for it, so I'm hoping to God that they're in. When I left England to go off to Australia to do "Peter Pan", I wished them the best of luck and told them if they messed up book three I'd be 'round to burn their house down. :: smiles :: Because I'm counting on book four, and my unborn children's school fees are counting on book four as well.