The writing is the springboard for your intuitive stuff and then you see, maybe a colour of what you want to achieve. Then you bring in the technique you've learnt. But when you're on film, you're not always in control of that. That's what makes me believe in a kind of collective unconscious, a sort of experience you draw on.

I've never felt stigmatized in my profession, nor have I allowed myself to. I don't feel either male or female, I feel I am just me, and I should be able to do whatever I like.

It sounds ideal, a sort of beach childhood. But it wasn't really. I didn't use the beach very much at all.

I wouldn't want to go back to my 20s; they were pretty angst-laden times.

It's a wonderful profession, and it opens lots of doors, and I think it's quite right that people can accuse actors and actresses of being dilettante, but you learn on every job, whatever it is, the process moves you on in some way, and yeah, I want to expand my knowledge of our existence, I suppose.

London keeps me grounded. We don't get praised every time we open our gobs there.

Insecurity, commonly regarded as a weakness in normal people, is the basic tool of the actor's trade.