I'd actually really love to review books and films and plays, but you can't be an artist and a critic. I would love it if I could.

I would like to know that I was still going to be employed as a woman well into my 60s. In acting terms, a career that spans a lifetime is a very hard thing to achieve, particularly as a woman.

I have always been interested in gender politics, so I'm not that keen on doing things that don't represent a truth about women.

I don't really want to play parts that I think are not fully developed or fleshed out, especially with female roles.

You don't have to conform to a very specific aesthetic today, whereas 1950s women definitely had to.

If I have to spend prolonged periods of time in a trailer, I go mad. Stuck in a metal box doing nothing, I lie there paralysed with boredom.

I get grumpy about the innate conservatism of our tastes; I love bold theatre, and I get annoyed when a heritage piece is really successful.