I don't want to have to be pretty. I don't want to have to be adorable.

I'm not at all fed up with British films, but I am fed up with playing upper-class people.

Having a leading man who is actually prettier than you are is quite upsetting.

I love shooting French films because I don't have to stick with being sophisticated or stuck-up.

I mean, if you're being directed very precisely by somebody who has admiration and who's really smart, it's great. If you're being told what to do by a nincompoop - and luckily that hasn't happened very often - it can be very frustrating.

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

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.