Often, the roles I'm offered in England are melancholic women who are filled with regret for the past, regret for their fading beauty.

I know people think that I always play these characters who are in control and can chop someone's head off with a look.

If you make a film about a pig farmer in Wales and you are a huge hit as the pig farmer's wife, the next thing is you'll be asked to do a film about a sheep farmer in Scotland.

The Cannes film festival is about big-budget films but also remarkable films made in different political regimes by film-makers with little resources.

I can't get into all that physical stuff of having to have flawless skin... Sometimes you see people and it looks like someone's got an eraser and made their face a little blurry - their traits seem to go out of focus.

When you make a film, you sign a contract with somebody, and it's not only legally binding but morally binding. You agree to give this man a certain number of weeks of your life, and you just go for it as much as possible. Because, whatever happens, the film is going to come out, so you might as well try very hard to make it a good one.

My body is a baby machine.