If I want to run around a field when I'm 70, I would like to have that option.

I like to think I'm a listener, and I'm fascinated by observing people - I suppose you just lock that in.

I would never have changed anything in the past. I have been acting for 32 years now and I feel so lucky to be able to have done exactly what I wanted to do.

I could suddenly see the pressures all around; these endless magazines and cheap reality TV programmes poking at women, humiliating us for every flaw. It makes me so angry. I really wonder what it is we are doing to ourselves, because I do think women can be the worst ones for picking each other apart.

I always start from scratch with a character - they're never based on anyone else. You get ideas of what people look like, and I'm a great people watcher. You can draw inspiration from people.

I still love coming into work everyday after so many years working as an actress. I've been working more or less continuously and I find I have to really want to do the project to make it work because you have to put such an enormous amount of effort into it.