The thing about being an actor is that every new job is a new challenge. Sometimes you'll have a shot, and it doesn't work. Sometimes it'll work better than you expected.

I guess just a lively imagination is the best effort an actor can have.

I have no problem with my age. I've been acting for 50 years in Australia and everyone knows my age because I started at 15. So there was never any point in lying about it.

It's fascinating. It's also exhilarating when you see people making the exact same choices that you've made. It kind of validates what you've decided to do. I saw a wonderful production of Jessica Lange doing Streetcar with Alec Baldwin. It was gorgeous. It's a measure of what a great classic that is, that our Cate Blanchett also did an absolute amazing Blanche in Sydney, as well as in New York.

I'm in fact Australian but my mother's English so I've got no problem playing a domineering English woman.

It's one of the functions of the theater to shock and titillate and appall, apart from entertain and delight.

Everything the Coen brothers do is brilliant.