My dad was an actor, and my older sister is an actress, and so I very much remember thinking, "Well, of course I'll do that as well." But I never imagined myself as an actor who would be in films. I always only thought of myself being in a play or a musical and maybe the odd episode of [U.K. '80s TV drama] Casualty. My backup plan was to do something with children, to start a nursery school or work with underprivileged kids. And I still dream of maybe doing that in some way. I've always got children in my house, always.

Every woman has a mother, and every woman will have an issue with that mother and things that mother did or didn't do. It just depends on how you choose to process the lessons that you learned from your own mother.

Obviously, for the majority of parents and certainly me you gain a million worlds when you have a child. Certainly, it's the thing that's changed my life and made me unbelievably happy.

Playing Juliet in Heavenly Creatures changed my life, and the role of Clementine in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind opened many new doors creatively.

Since I was 13 or 14, I've always felt older than I actually am.

Having children just puts the whole world into perspective. Everything else just disappears.

I had to grow the hair down there. But because of years of waxing, as all of us girls know, it doesn't come back quite the way it used to. They even made me a merkin - a wig - because they were so concerned that I might not be able to grow enough.