The thing about anything in life is you have to get ready for it. Study, learn and in terms of acting, there's a lot to learn. The bigger culture you have in life, the better actor you'll be. You'll have more to pull on.

I've probably understood men too well. I realise they are predatory by nature, and I have a certain acceptance of the male animal.

I have always watched the rushes, and have learned more because I have done so, because you can have all manner of ideas in your head, but they have to end up on the screen.

I can't believe I've been doing it so long. In the last three or four years, I've slowed down. I'm doing only the roles I really want to do.

Being around people with whom you feel a connection, on many levels, not just a professional one, is very relaxing. Your ears are more open to someone who is not a cantankerous bastard.

At first I was always cast as the girlfriend. It was a long time before I got to play characters who were people.

I grew up in a small town about 40 miles outside London, but it was a fairly cosmopolitan household.