The 63-year-old actor can vividly remember his theatre debut, although it didn't go to plan. He was horrified by his performance in Chicago, leading him to put himself in a dangerous situation.

"I wasn't very good and I remember my first experience on a stage. I was so bad I just walked out of the theatre. I started walking and I walked for a couple of hours and I realised I'd walked the wrong direction. Not just the wrong direction in terms of where I lived but the wrong direction in terms of a desire to stay alive," he told Cover Media. "And this may be a little bit - not completely true, but it's pretty true - I walked and then I thought, 'Well if I'm gonna die where I am, I may as well just go over towards the lake and maybe I'll float for a while after I'm dead.'"

Bill soon realised he was actually near the well-known and major road Michigan Avenue. He decided to continue his journey and ended up at the iconic museum the Art Institute of Chicago. Although it didn't start well, the actor cites this experience as one of the most important in his life as it showed him the importance of art.

"I just walked inside and I didn't feel like I had any place being in there - they used to ask you for a donation, y'know, when you go into a museum and I just walked right through because I was ready to die and I walked in and there's a painting there and I don't even know who painted it - I think it's called The Song of the Lark - and it's a woman working in a field and there's a sunrise behind her and I've always loved this painting," he recalled. "I saw it that day and I just thought, 'There's a girl who doesn't have a whole lot of prospects but the sun's coming up anyway and she's got another chance.' I think that gave me some sort of feeling that I too would have a reversal... and you get another chance every day."

Bill was talking about the importance of art in everybody's life as he promoted his new movie The Monuments Men, which is directed and written by George Clooney. It is based on the true story of a group of soldiers who were tasked with rescuing iconic paintings and sculptures which had been stolen from all over the world by the Nazis during World War II.

The Monuments Men is out in the UK on February 14.