A Latin teacher told me I might make a good actress, and that stuck in my memory. I did some modeling, and Polanski gave me that small part.

I have an intense obsession with making films. I not only love to make films, I perhaps need to make films.

I grew up in a small town about 40 miles outside London, but it was a fairly cosmopolitan household.

I can't believe I've been doing it so long. In the last three or four years, I've slowed down. I'm doing only the roles I really want to do.

I am a great lover of art, in many forms: paintings, objets, textiles. I don't have the talent for painting, but I have a very good sense of colour, a love of visual beauty.

I was never any good in the school theatrical productions. I always got a role like the March Hare.

My looks are changing obviously, so I fuss like any woman if I look tired or whatever, I put on weight and blah, blah. But some part of me is very relaxed with it all.

I have watched people who have nothing to do with the film business, but who have become part of the circle for a short period of time. They can be truly devastated when the film wraps and people leave.

Success as a woman has changed me. That's what I feel is the first thing. When I feel like a successful woman as a rounded human being, then it feeds my work in a broader way so it becomes more interesting.

I'd like to work more, but I don't just want to do kind of generic characters. I want to do interesting characters, and I'd like to be cast against type.

There is an eternal humanity that crosses through all people, and it's more interesting often when it's about struggle - not people with champagne glasses.

To be used in a part without depth is a frustrating feeling, when you know you have something to give.

I have never given up on men easily.

You need to become a good listener. As you're working, you hear someone else's lines and how you absorb them becomes your acting.

I'm quite happy being myself. I'm a big fan of Jessica Lange and Jeanne Moreau, but I don't want to be anyone else.

I want to keep my attractiveness as long as I can. It has to do with vitality and energy and interest.

I'd like to get my public image nearer to my reality. People have a lot of misconceptions.

I love being in my garden. I don't plant a lot of exotic flora, but I do spend a lot of time outside doing manual labour.

I've probably understood men too well. I realise they are predatory by nature, and I have a certain acceptance of the male animal.