My mother, for the last 20 years anyway, would not call herself a Marxist but a human rights activist.

So finally, I can feel a sort of pride in all my family - Mum, Lynn, Corin, Tasha, my cousin Gemma - because, I think how wonderful that this troop of gypsies can carry on telling stories.

There's still a bit of a problem, in that so many leading English roles are taken by American or French actresses.

My mother, for the last 20 years anyway, would not call herself a Marxist but a human rights activist.

When I very first started out, I had that arrogance of youth.

Everyone knows in the industry that when these great roles come up, every two years, there's a huge number of people up for them. I'm not one of those top five females that can personally finance any film.

OK, I wasn't as successful as, say, Julia Roberts, but I'd spent years in a very respectable career, some big American films but a host of other smaller, really exciting, maybe experimental films, being paid rubbish but working with fine people, that was what I thought I was known for.