Freddie Highmore, who played Norman Bates in the TV series Bates Motel, has revealed he wanted to play for Arsenal before becoming an actor.

The 27-year-old, who hails from England, has also appeared alongside Johnny Depp in Finding Neverland and currently stars in The Good Doctor,

He made his mind up to become an actor full-time when he was 19 and was offered the role of Norman Bates, a character he went on to play for five years.

But if things had been different, he would have loved to play for Arsenal.

“I’ve been lucky to have had the distance from a Hollywood upbringing, being able to go back [to London] and wanting to be a footballer and play for Arsenal back in the U.K.,” he said at Series Mania.

“I’ve been very lucky to have kept a normal life, a reality. I would definitely recommend not deciding this is the only thing you want to do, keep going to school.

“Also a university degree is a wonderful opportunity to get more life experience,” he added. “I sometimes wonder, and of course people do it brilliantly, but what, if you act as a kid and go straight into acting as an adult, what are those experiences which you have to draw on.”