I never had any acting heroes. I never really went to the theatre.
I felt my mother about the place. I don't think she haunts me, but I wouldn't put it past her.
I don't want to give up acting - it's what I am.
I don't like being out of the crowd. It's lonely within a group.
I didn't come into the business to get awards or titles.
Being a mother adds another emotional dimension, a feel for children that I didn't have before I had one. They were a pain before.
As soon as I gave birth, it was as if you understand them. They become people, not kids. You start to identify with them. You see yourself in them.
I'll tell you how it happened. The phone rang. Paul, my agent, goes, 'Would you like to play Meryl Streep's?' I said, 'Yeeees! I'll do it, whatever it is.' He said, 'It's Mamma Mia!.' I said, 'Oh no, which character? The fat friend?
You can't help but feel a little bit like a mother to the younger cast members.
The way I relax is I think, 'I haven't got anything coming up.' I like to know there are months ahead when I've got nothing.
I was the little, funny one. I felt I was the child among grown women.
There is this idea that appealing to youth is the only way forward. But that is no longer the case. Youth is not everything. Now we have all the baby-boomers in their 60s, like me, who are actively engaged in life - we're not retiring, we're not just being put out to grass once we hit 60.
It's getting better generally, daily, especially in TV, for women in acting; and age and looks count less. As more women come into the business. Change of any sort takes a long time to happen.
In order to be creative you have to be allowed to fail.
