I think in every character there are aspects of yourself that you bring to it. But then it would be really boring to just play yourself.

Most of the time I was in the background. I never played [the Virgin] Mary. I was always kind of the third angel.

I'm a real geek. I love spending time researching a character and reading about them.

I always wear the shoes of the character a week before going on set; the idea of just putting on a new pair of shoes on the first day of filming is just horrific.

I don't like when I look too cluttered.

I do sort of appreciate Nelly's [Ternan] view that it would be woman who would suffer mostly from that - who would be ostracized. The rigid societal conventions meant that it was difficult to live outside of them.

My mother [was in advertising and] worked incredibly hard when she was bringing us up. She was a working mother and a working single parent.