My older brother, who was in the Army, now owns his own building company. My half-sister was a nurse and is now a psychotherapist.
Proper love should be utterly supportive and comfortable, and it feels like a raincoat or a jacket potato.
If the script's good, everything you need is in there. I just try and feel it, and do it honestly. I also don't learn things for auditions, because I feel like it's just a test of memorizing rather than being real. Maybe every other actor would think that was terrible, I don't know. But it seems to have worked for me, so far.
You can over-think things. If the script's good, everything you need is in there. I just try and feel it and do it honestly. I also don't learn things for auditions, because I feel like it's just a test of memorising rather than being real.
For some reason, people imagine that dramatic things happen to people who don't look beautiful.
Acting is playing, and it is like being a big kid. Yeah, it's great. You get paid.
In fact I was slightly badly behaved at school and got in trouble. I would get a bee in my bonnet about something I thought wasn't right, and I would ape about too, to make everybody laugh. That was my way through my girls' school, because I wasn't very academic.
I was never one of those surly teenagers who doesn't smile. My lovely godfather said it was always lovely to see me because I was the only teenager who smiled. And I was so in awe of him, I thought it was one of the best things anyone had ever said to me. So it made me want to live up to what he said.
I always assumed I would leave drama school and do 'Lady Macbeth' and all sorts of serious things. It just didn't happen.
I want to be helpful to the charities I support. I think you can dilute it, the more you do. You have to be a bit strong about what you do... otherwise, you risk spreading yourself a bit thin, and you can be less useful.
I've been with my husband and friends for so long, I've forgotten what is unappealing to new people.
I used to want to be in 'Downton' because I had never been in a period drama, but then I did 'The Suspicions of Mr Whicher' and had to wear one of those frocks and... I didn't feel very comfortable.
I was nervous about meeting Charlotte Rampling, as she's a proper legend, but she is just so sweet.
I have done Botox, and I loved it.
It gets slightly daunting if you're watching the telly and everybody's gorgeous. It's just so rubbish. And I'm grateful that it's not so much anymore - it's great to see.
Actually, lots of women, when they're pregnant, feel like steel. They feel incredible.
I am just an actor - all I do is I memorise someone else's words and tart around.
Everybody laughs all the time, and some of the worst things that happen make you laugh 'cause it's a defense isn't it, I suppose.
I suppose I have played a lot of put-upon women, but it's never bothered me. They've never been weak - they've always got steel in them.
I don't think you can cry if the script is rubbish. I have to feel it; it's as simple as that. It's just like if you're watching something moving, and you feel yourself welling up. It's the same thing. You're just being carried along with the story. There's nothing magical about it. I think I'm in touch with my emotions, and I can't help it.
