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'.

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

I carry music in my head, so I don't need more. It drives me nuts that, in hotels or on boats, people seem to think you need music 24 hours a day.

I don't necessarily wait for that massive leading role. I want to keep the juices flowing.

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.

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

My phrase has always been that I am looking for the versatility of theatre in film. I think I have been quite lucky in that so far.