I'll tell you how it happened. The phone rang. Paul, my agent, goes, 'Would you like to play Meryl Streep's?' I said, 'Yeeees! I'll do it, whatever it is.' He said, 'It's Mamma Mia!.' I said, 'Oh no, which character? The fat friend?

Everyone comes up to me saying, 'Cooee, Julie! Hello!' as if I know them. Of course I don't bloody know them. Am I flummoxed by it? Sometimes. I think, 'Ooh, love, go easy.' For a time, I did feel this pressure that I had to be funny, but it passes.

You can't help but feel a little bit like a mother to the younger cast members.

I was feeling very irritable. It was that difficult time of the month when the credit card statement arrives.

Some people have a terrible stretch between family and work. It is a difficult thing to achieve.

When I think of the future, I think of doing my washing so I've something to wear tomorrow.

Suddenly, you are very much in the present, and you learn it's really the place where you should always live.