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.

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.

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.

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.

At first I was always cast as the girlfriend. It was a long time before I got to play characters who were people.