Obviously people don't want other people to tell them how to think or what to believe, or to tell them what's right politically and what's wrong.

I lived in Hollywood and, ironically, I didn't know you could just go out and get an agent and go on auditions and try and become an actor, I thought it was like a Masonic thing, like a blood line you had to belong to – until I was 13. Then I realised what you had to do. It is the one thing I know I want to do for the rest of my life.

The more I've acted, I've realised that I have a) no control of and b) no way of really quite understanding how people react to anything I do, or any movie I do.

Most of the time I do feel like I need someone else when I'm alone. But I can still get by with just my own company and that makes me a stronger person.

It was invaluable to have a dear friend who you have known for over a decade, be a partner in a film like Titanic. To have somebody that talented to work against, who's also your friend and who you know you have the best intentions for and vice versa, and who you intrinsically trust to give you their forthright honest opinion about what we're both doing - all that's something you can't really buy.

I remember when I first started having these interpretations of these images, these clichés of what movie stars are and this and that, and they're egomaniacal pricks and tyrants, but in general, for the most part, they're nice people to tell you the truth.

That's the magic of moviemaking. You clearly identify one scenario with the other, and it's a completely different experience.