I just went and got an agent because I thought I can create my own world - you can't right your own life, but you can escape to a world where you can have control.

I loved doing all those costume dramas. I didn't think, 'Ooh I've got to avoid being typecast' - you can't ever be dictated to by what other people think. I just do things because I fancy the parts and the directors.

I think Woody Allen is pretty much of a genius. I'm thinking of filmmakers every century or two, but I've never had the luck to meet them. People who create their absolutely own world and are totally inimitable.

Journalists are always calling my features Edwardian or Victorian, whatever that means. I am small, and people were smaller in those times. I'm pale and sickly-looking. I look fragile-like a doll. But sometimes I just wish I had less of a particular look, one that was more versatile.

With the number of people I ignore, I'm lucky I work at all in this town.

When it comes to acting, people talk about the suspension of disbelief that you ask of the audience. Before that starts, you have to, as an actor, suspend your own disbelief.

Because I sleep with him he asked me to audition, you know?