Is casting a learnt skill, or an instinctive thing?

For me it's a gut [thing]. Whenever I do a job, I really psychoanalyse every single character, and isolate the qualities I'm looking for.

I have discussions with my producers, and they tell me the qualities they're looking for. Then I have my own things, because for the most part I'm sitting in a room alone reading people, and out of that I bring a group to my producers.

It's something I feel very confident about. I think it is a talent, but in a way it's not a talent, it's really about intuition. I've always approached casting as kind of a designer. I can visualise, and then the acting ability has to correspond to that visualisation.

Then there's the X Factor that makes somebody a star or not. That, I think for whatever reason, I have the ability to recognise.