You have to have the passion. I could not live if I wasn't an actor. If you're just in it for beautiful dresses and movie stars, then I think you should not be an actor.

Above all, I dislike vulgarity.

To me, acting is very therapeutic. I get out a lot of anger and frustration. It's maybe hard to believe, but as a kid I really had a lot of self-doubts. My father was very ill - he was an alcoholic - so there were a lot of things that built up for me. And because I was going to a Catholic school in a small German town, a lot of it was suppressed. I was angry and didn't know how to get it out.

Brad Pitt seems to have no problem getting parts that he wants, nor does Angelina Jolie. Not that I'm saying I look like either of them, but I just don't think that it has anything to do with that. It's the emotions or characters you are able to take on that will get you work, not necessarily the way you look. Obviously, beauty can open doors - it is Hollywood, after all - but that's not enough.

I don't believe in marriage. I believe in a commitment that you make in your heart. There's no paper that will make you stay.

Sometimes you can write a great scene, but when you're actually in a situation and it doesn't work, you have to be flexible enough to make it work for you.

What I really tried to do with Helen was make her show this sad side of her. She was married off at 16, was so young and living in this castle that can't leave because of how she looks, and married to a man she hates and three times her age.