“Changing my name was traumatic for me.”

“I am so longing to be domestic,, cooking stew, gardening, hopefully having some children, painting, sitting still in one place.”

“I don't like, and I've never been very good at, close-up shots. As soon as you have the camera right there in front of you, it feels like you're in a different reality from the person you are acting with; you lose any real connection with them.”

“I don't read reviews. I find them very distracting, whether they're good or bad.”

“I have never worn a watch. I did at 17 and it annoyed me.”

“I haven't done the milestoney things - getting married, buying a house, having children.”

“I love the Old Vic so deeply, it's like a second home.”

“I would love to go and live in the mountains... and make jam.”

“If a part terrifies me, that is definitely a reason to do it.”

“If you're a woman doing classic theater, the big roles are often destroyers. I've played Hedda Gabler, Lady Macbeth, some of the Chekhovian heroines, Electra, Phaedra - they're all powerful women, but they're forces of negativity.”

“There are so many huge roles in the theatre: if you've got the option to play Hedda Gabler on stage, why wouldn't you choose that over a three-line part in a Hollywood film as somebody's maid or somebody's wife or somebody's best friend?”

“There's this funny thing with pilots that you have to sign the contract to do the whole job before you're even offered the part. And they make about a million pilots a year, but hardly any of them get turned into series.”

“Time is about the need to control. Let go of control and embrace what happens.”

“When I left Oxford, I knew I wanted to act, but I was unsure how to go about it.”

“When you are up close to an opera singer, hearing this incredible volume of noise coming from a human being - it's beyond belief.”