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 think it took a long time for me to realise that as much as I respect reviews and do engage with reviewers as a viewer of the theatre, television and film it's really unhelpful. Even if people make perceptive and interesting comments about your performance, it is so subjective and you will come in and change what you do, you can't help it.

It's hard for actors to have to deal with the fact that they pour so much into their character, but the audience might have a negative assessment of them.

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 realise there's an innate paradox in promoting oneself on the one hand and saying, 'Oh, I don't want to be famous,' on the other.

I have a very strong, probably slightly aggressive personality, and so that just ends up coming out regardless of what I try to do.

I can't spend the rest of my life being pretty in a bonnet.