You can't worry too much about profile; otherwise, you become a different kind of actor, and that's not the kind of actor I want to be.

There are people out there with three jobs and small children. Being an actor is a walk in the park compared to working as a cleaner overnight. I'm lucky I'm not plucking chickens.

I think creative people need to do a bit of, you know, tuning into every radio station - you just do, otherwise you don't know much about other people. You kind of have to learn a bit about yourself so you can work out how we all behave and why we do the things we do.

People can be a bit flagrant when they're having an affair. Most of the time, there's an element of it where they want to be discovered because they're in crisis. They need the boil to be burst, in some way, for a resolution.

There are some roles you just don't say 'no' to. Those compass points: you get them so rarely as an actress.

The experience of having a child does crack you wide open. I felt like I suddenly had to rebuild the skin that I'd grown over the years before having a child. Perhaps that might be quite interesting in terms of acting.

I was quite shy. I used to write stories all the time, and I think that was a worry for my parents.