The home I was brought up in [in Katonah, New York] had a real impact on me. It was really simple, not a big house at all, at the end of a cul-de-sac on the top of a hill and built in the 1960s. We moved there when I was about three. My dad did a huge amount of work to it and in it, building cabinets and things like that. It was just a great place to grow up.
We had three bedrooms. Eventually my bedroom became a dining room and I was moved downstairs to the basement, which made me very happy as a young teenager. There were woods and we had beautiful snow every winter, and gorgeous colors every autumn.
My parents sold the home about eight years ago and moved to Florida, and I was very sad to see it go. I wish that I could have afforded to buy it and keep it.
Would you change anything about buildings in Britain?
You don’t heat your hallways or your bathrooms. In pubs, in particular. I don’t understand that. It’s not like it’s the tropics here.
What’s your daily routine?
I get the kids ready for school and then exercise straight away, or start cooking something for the week or that evening. Then I always do this word game called Spelling Bee, which is this thing in The New York Times, and it’s basically how many words you can find in seven letters. I’ve been writing another book and I find it clears my head before I start writing.
I work out with my trainer Monique Eastwood. She trains my sister-in-law Emily [Blunt], my wife [Felicity] and our friend [actor] Sam Rockwell. Sometimes she trains [actors] Anne Hathaway and Miranda Richardson. She’ll do HIIT classes, Pilates and I do weights and then we do a yoga session on Saturday. I work out five or six days a week.
Which is your favorite room of your home?
I like the kitchen we have [at home in southwest London] very much. We designed it for our lifestyle, which entails a lot of cooking and a lot of people coming to visit.
I was able to find this Bora hob, which is a German design. It’s induction, and I never liked induction before, but this is so beautifully designed and it’s vented on the sides of the burners. That means I can put the hob on a big island and I can face out and talk to my family and friends or film while I’m cooking. I’ve spent so much of life with my back to my family.
Who wears the trousers in your kitchen?
If Felicity and I cook together, it depends on what we are cooking. She has certain strengths and I have certain strengths, so the trousers get passed around. Usually if I’m with my mum, she’s wearing the trousers.
What’s the best thing about having an Italian mother?
One of the ways my mum showed love as we were growing up was by cooking and teaching us how to cook. She showed love in other ways, like being affectionate and teasing us. She’s very, very funny, my mother, but we had the added plus of watching her cook — learning from her and eating her food.
You don’t heat your hallways or your bathrooms. In pubs, in particular. I don’t understand that.
What went into creating your own cookware?
It’s something I’ve always wanted to do. When the company [GreenPan] came to me and said, “Would you be interested?” I was like, “How did you know?” The designer I worked with said, “I’ve studied you for months, and your Instagram and [cookery programs], to see what your aesthetic was.” When he came to the house, I showed him the utensils my father had made. [My father] was an artist, so he’d make a wooden spatula out of walnut or something.
If he wanted it to be a certain shape, he would just go and make it. I showed the designer stuff from the 1960s and 1970s, and the Danish designs my parents used to use and had given to me. I showed him certain pots and pans, the colors and shapes of them and how their design could be used. I couldn’t be happier with the collection. I’m going to do more.
What’s the first thing you do when you come home after filming?
Sometimes you arrive at midnight, sometimes you arrive off the red-eye flight. I usually just clean up and then make something to eat. Sometimes I just put tomato sauce — you know, la marinara — on the burner, just to get things smelling good.
Where would your dream home be?
Probably someplace like in the Alps. I like winter and I like the mountains. I also like water, even though I don’t swim. I ski but I don’t swim. I don’t mind being on a boat. I’m pretty happy living in England I have to say. I love it.
Where do you holiday?
In Cornwall. We don’t own a holiday home, but we love Mawgan Porth. Watergate Bay is gorgeous. Harlyn Bay is so pretty. In Italy I really love Le Marche because it’s not really touristy and the food is really good, and you feel like it’s the undiscovered Tuscany.
Usually if I’m with my mum, she’s wearing the trousers.
Do you think you are now more famous for acting or for cooking and cocktails?
I think they are just about on par with one another at this point, which is really funny. I’ve been acting for 42 years and then you make one cocktail …
Your favourite pasta dish and top cocktail?
I love a martini. Pasta dish? It’s almost impossible to say, but spaghetti pomodoro. Something simple.
Should we mix cheese with fish?
I don’t.
What was the last property that made you cry?
Probably leaving the house in America when I moved to England. It was in Westchester County, right near where I grew up, an hour north of New York. It was built in 1775, which is very old for America. I had put a lot of money and time into the design and renovation of it. Felicity came and lived with me and my kids there for two years after we started dating. I sold it at a loss. The market was terrible at the time, but we needed to move here. It was hard because I had lived there with my late wife, and my kids went to their first day at school living in that house. It was full of memories.
Katrina Burroughs is the interiors editor at The Times of London and The Sunday Times
