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Britain's ultimate hyphenate since 1989, one might expect actor-director-writer-producer Kenneth Branagh to carry at least a little bit of ego, whether it be while delivering the Saint Crispen's Day speech in 1989's "Henry V" or directing "As You Like It," which premiered on HBO this past August. But Branagh's attitude toward his work is one of excitement and genuine wonder.

"I'm quite excited that it's a potentially bigger and different audience because it's on HBO," he said about the move to TV. "Just hanging on in cinemas is difficult. We have a chance here, I think, to let our audience in in a different way. They don't have to rush out for that opening weekend."

Another interesting change was that Branagh did not act in "As You Like It."

"It is easier, for sure, not to do both," he said. "It was a short schedule. We were happy about that. But it meant that I wanted to focus on directing."

Branagh has brought that focus to the upcoming remake of the 1972 thriller "Sleuth," itself a kind of classic: It tells the story of an aging novelist who offers riches and freedom to his wife's young lover.

"I suppose the proof of classic status is the ability to look at something in different ways," he said. "And in that case, we had [playwright] Harold Pinter do a redo of the script and he made it his own. It became somehow different … it felt like working on something utterly new."

In addition to "Sleuth," which is finished and now awaiting release, Branagh is currently working opposite Tom Cruise in in "Valkyrie," a thriller based on a historical plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler near the end of World War II.

Still, Branagh remains firmly associated with the works of William Shakespeare, despite his demurrals to suggestions that he knows the Bard inside and out.

"Don't assume that, please," he said. "Definitely not the case."