Quotes

I love French films, and European films. They're not any bigger, but there's just a sort of definition, and a confidence, and strength to them. I'd always, given the option, go and see a French drama. Obviously, we probably get the better ones. But they're just sophisticated on many levels, and grown up, and quite profound - and we don't make films like that.

I always think you should be totally frivolous as much as you can, and then take the work seriously when it has to be taken seriously. As long as you can keep that balance going, it's good fun. If it's only frivolous it's not fun - it would drive me potty. On Iris, I'd never worked with Judi Dench before, but it was wonderful to realize that we worked in exactly the same way. Foolish for most of the time, then focusing on the work, clicking into it very quickly and naturally. There were a lot of laughs. Otherwise it could have been torture. Two months of being grueled.

[on declining an OBE in 2002] I didn't think I deserved it, really. And also my father died when I was 22 and he was quite an anarchic spirit, and he would have been proud of me to have turned it down. You know how it is, the usual line: 'Oh, I accepted it for my parents.' Whereas I turned it down for my parents.

I was offered an OBE a couple of years ago, but I said, 'no', and turned it down. I'm not that comfortable with actors receiving honours, partly because I think they ought to go to those who really help others. Besides, I like the idea of actors not being part of the Establishment. We're vagabonds and rogues, and we're not a part of the authorities and Establishment, really. If you mix the two together, things get blurry.