From an interview with Ioan Gruffudd:

Another huge draw for the 33-year-old – whose most enduring role to date has been TV’s Horatio Hornblower – was the stellar British cast including Rufus Sewell, Toby Jones, Michael Gambon and Albert Finney.

“I’ve admired them all from afar, especially Albert Finney... I have a lot of reverence for Albert myself, so there was no real acting involved, it was just reacting to this incredible man,” he recalls.

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From an interview with Ioan Gruffudd:

Finney, who plays John Newton, the sea captain turned cleric who wrote the song “Amazing Grace,” probably had the wildest tales to share, Gruffudd says.

“I told him that I was going to Havana for Christmas vacation, and he said, ‘Oh, I’ve been to Havana. Fantastic place. You must go to such-and-such dance club. Beautiful salsa dancers with legs up to their shoulders ...’

“I said, ‘I don’t think I’ll be doing much of that because I’ll be there with my fiancée,’ and he said, ‘What do you mean? I was there with my wife.’ ”

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From an interview with Rupert Everett:

The trouble with a business like the cinema is, the trajectory has to be up. You can't plateau any more. You can't be someone who retains a career doing the same thing for year after year, like in the old days. In the old days actors like Albert Finney, for example, took two years off right at the peak of his success and came back and he was the same person. If you took two weeks off now, no one would remember who you were because we have such a fast moving business and there's so much competition, there's so much product around."

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From an interview with Michael Apted:

But after spending literally his entire career trying to get Albert Finney to star in one of his films, Apted says landing him for the role of Wilberforce’s mentor John Newton turned out to be fairly effortless. “He just loved this script, the lead character and the period in history,” Apted reveals. “It is not a story people know that much about, so he said he’d do it.

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From an interview with Ioan Gruffudd:

Examiner: With ferocious old English acting lions like Albert Finney and Michael Gambon in “Grace,” did you ever worry about them scene-stealing?

Gruffudd: I don’t get worried about scenes being stolen from me. It bolsters your own performance. And if they’re taking some of the burden of carrying the movie by being so brilliant, it all adds to the power of the movie. ... The sad fact was that I only had a couple of days to work with Albert Finney. But what a pleasure! The guy is just a legend, a real lesson — not just in acting but in humanity.

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