Quotes

Some producer suddenly grabbed my doughnut out of my hand. Then he said, 'Anna, you really shouldn't be doing that'. He said, 'your tummy's not looking right on screen'. If it's just about that they should have hired a model. I mean, we're not talking about a big f**king tummy here!

People became more interested in my love life than in me, and that has a certain effect. You start to feel very empty and worth nothing, you start to become a piece in a board game you never wanted to play.

I play a character every day of my life, and I don't want to play a character as myself. They can judge me as an actress, not as a person. I'm not a spokeswoman for Anna.

Being a mother gives you an incredible feeling of empowerment, you think if I can go through such pain and that level of sleep and still operate and not be grumpy you can do anything. It can be quite scary, you can't function your brain, forget your vocabulary.

For me personally, everything is on a kiss.

I have the most lovely, healthy bouncing baby, she was all very compact and the right size.

I look at being an actress as being like a mummy: You're bandaged up and preserved as soon as you start making other people money.

I've always chosen incredibly different roles and things that are quite offbeat. That way you're not limited.

And the most important thing - apart from telling a good, believable story, and being a true character - is to be someone the audience will care about, even if you're playing a murderer or rapist.

For Closer, we've had five weeks. You go into every single word because it's very, very concentrated dialogue.

David is 13 years my senior and has much more experience.

I want more children but for the next three years I want to act.

Now learning a bit more about footballers I think what they need to do well, is someone who really wants to stay in the background and just be a strong support.

The doctors say it dates back to a film where I had these huge prosthetic breasts because my character was breast-feeding. The weight of them, and of the baby, did my back in.

Well it's hard to bracket it like that because everyone always thinks you either go to America and you come back, fail or succeed, but it doesn't work like that.

I've been onstage once for one performance with four days' rehearsal.

It's really important to draw the line on what we do as actors.

Onstage, there's no hiding; you either can or can't act. There's no second take.

We will spend more time in America, we're going to get a place in LA as hotels aren't great for the baby.

As long as she is talented enough and passionate about doing it herself then I will be happy and support her. I think I will be sensible - my parents said I could only do it if I got my education and so I had something to fall back on.

You can see when an actor gets bored: Their eyes go dead. I promised myself I'd never let that happen. If it does, I'll go and live on a desert island for a year.

[on being sexy] For so long we've been held up to this idea that only a gorgeous teenager's body is sexy. But talent and maturity is sexy. Real is sexy. I feel far more sexy now than I did when I was 18. I don't look as good, there are lines and little bulges but I have confidence, wisdom, knowledge, and I don't care as much as I used to do. I'm not perfect but I work hard to keep looking good, and what I am is very real. I'll take that over being 18 and perfect any day.

[getting remarried (2017)] It just hasn't happened. I've had lots of great relationships and I've never allowed myself to get obsessed by the fact I'm not married. Maybe I'll get married when I'm 50 or 60. I wouldn't rule it out. I'll just wait and see what happens.

[being nude on stage in Breakfast At Tiffany's] At first I was [nervous]. There was a whole debate about when we actually rehearse the nakedness for the first time. It was in a rehearsal room which was very stark and cold and under fluorescent lights. I have never really had a problem with nakedness. I could sit here completely naked and be interviewed and not care.

[performing nudity] In my normal life I have no problems about nudity at all. I did a few semi-naked magazine shoots in the Nineties but only as me. On screen it's always different. I'm incredibly protective of my characters, and the nudity clauses in my contracts are as thick as telephone books. I discuss all the decisions with the director and producers in minute detail because, to me, what my character shows, what my character wears is crucially important and it's up to me to fight for them.