It's the idea that when you say 'actress', people think of an airy, floaty, no-brain person, which of course you can't be if you are an actor. It is an unfortunate word, which is why, for a time, I hung on to 'actor', because it just seemed more workmanlike, you know, like you say 'woman doctor' not 'doctoress'.

Somebody referred to me as a ringleader, which I wouldn't have classed myself as, but anyway, there you go.

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

If you only took on roles that had the same qualities, then I suppose it might make a critic feel better, if he can see some kind of bedrock. Perhaps that's the old definition of a star, someone who's always going to come up with the same goods. But it intimates limitation to me and I don't want to think of the job like that.

I like the personality of the Belgians. They're deeply eccentric, which is something that comes across in their design - terrific.

My roots are still in Britain, that's where I live, that's the place where I come from.

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.