When you're young and beautiful, you're paranoid and miserable.

Women have got to stop being polite. If I ever had children, which I don't, the first thing I'd teach a girl of mine is the words 'f - off.'

With that incredible voice that he [Alan Rickman] could play like a sort of wonderful instrument, like a cello or something. He played his voice, and he could be the most subtle of actors. And he could also be quite a big actor. He could do the grandiose performances as well.

A woman with knowledge is something that frightens the status quo quite a lot.

I believe kids shouldn't be taught Shakespeare. They should experience it first by seeing a great production.

As an actor, those are the roles that you long for. You always want something that's going to kick your last role out of the water and put you off on a new path.

My grandfather had come over as a member of the czarist army, to make an arms deal with the British government. Being a blinkered military man, he was unaware that the Russian Revolution was about to take place.