I used to be so intensely preoccupied by unhappiness... now there are times where you might get down, but you can move on much faster now.

I wouldn't want you to see me all the time on the screen, because I get bored of it myself!

If you are a successful actor, which is what I am, then you tend to get labelled very quickly and easily.

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

I like the idea that I'm making things that people might think and argue about.

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.