Quotes

My foster mother died and I did not have a relationship with my real parents. I know who they are. It's not upsetting; it's just the way it is. You cannot change things. My childhood isn't like an albatross around my neck.

With publicity, you have to retain a level of privacy. For me, work and my life shouldn't be one and the same.

Acting and music are self indulgent professions and they are a luxury unless you love what you do. I have a love/hate relationship with what I do. I think, 'Where's the relevance of this? I'm not a doctor, I'm not an aid worker.' But then I think you only have one life and I am a vessel for stories to be told.

Woody Allen makes Woody Allen comedies and they are all about him. Steven Spielberg likes to tell someone else's story and it is not only about him. Fine direction such as Spielberg's is rare. You have to be very confident to direct actors. Too many directors merely know where to point the camera.

In films, it's just that one minute you're strong, then you're told you're difficult. The minute you say, 'No, I won't take my top off' or 'No, I won't work overtime', you're bloody difficult.

I think people found me unnervingly truthful without any filter in my mouth, and this was deemed very bad, especially for a woman. You are not meant to tell somebody to fuck off if they are being rude - you are meant to find a political, tactical way to get out of a situation. When I was younger if I thought somebody was abusing me I would point it out immediately. I think you just grow up.

The more you do, the more your name stands up and what's for you won't pass you. Besides, Hollywood frightens me. Selling yourself in order to work. Giving a pound of your flesh. Good stories need good actors to make them believable. The more you see someone on magazine covers or selling shampoo, the less you can relate to them as that character.

That first Oscar nomination did incredible things for me in the States. I'm grateful for that. It means that I'm able to get an independent movie financed. My name can raise money on a small-budget film. It means I'm able to support the industry.

I wouldn't say that I live in a constant state of illness, but I do think that when you have been sexually or physically abused, it is a life sentence. It does stay with you for ever. Trauma is like grief. You can be fine for four or five years, then it comes back and hits you like it happened the day before. But then you can heal, you can find ways to love yourself, to be a valid member of society, to give back.

My stepdad had a dodgy video store, which he shouldn't have had, but it was a lot of horror that wasn't allowed to be released in England. I grew up watching a lot of horror and I loved it. I absolutely loved it. Things like The Evil Dead (1981). And equally as a child, loving things like The NeverEnding Story (1984) or The Dark Crystal (1982) — Jim Henson and puppetry and wanting to be either a princess or a baddie. Growing up, I wanted to be Darth Vader.

I grew up in the foster-care system, children's homes, and I was never really welcome in normal society because we were considered scum. People didn't really understand our stories, but nonetheless, we were labeled scum. I had to fight just to have a voice or to be relevant. A lot of kids are written off in that way. When I was very little, in order to just be in a room with other people that were maybe better-educated or came from a normal family, I always used to think: "I have a right to be here. I'm a human being. I have a right to be here. We're all just as important as each other."