Mike Leigh encourages you to choose a person that you know to base your character on. You write a whole list of people that you know and you go through that list in great depth with him. And then he chooses one of those people from your list.

When I think of Marilyn Monroe, and achieving her sound, I think of having a rather large bust. I think of her physically and I am just able to create her sound, because her physicality was so much to do with her sound.

I just find it thrilling, especially when I totally lock in to the person that I am doing and I'm really flying... I suppose I am hiding myself when I sing as these other people.

Mimicking people was something I did already.

Having someone else to blame when there is a rude smell in the air.

I think that if you idealise someone for so long, they can only disappoint and I wouldn't want to be disappointed by those people.

I found that I could make people laugh doing people like Shirley Bassey. Fortunately it worked.