I've got quite a big gay following. I played a lesbian prostitute in the TV series 'Band Of Gold' but I think my following really grew when I played one in the film 'Imagine Me & You,' with Piper Perabo.
There's a perceived inverse relation between looks and talent. Look at Charlize Theron - she made herself ugly for 'Monster' and suddenly everyone said 'she's a genius.' It shouldn't be like that.
I've never directed before, so I need to make sure that people know that I can. The movie that I've written, 'The Sophisticates,' is a... small ensemble comedy and I hope it's charming and funny.
There's nothing more exciting for an actor than a chance to lose, to be someone who has lost - especially if it's someone who starts off with a veneer of control. To be broken is wonderful.
I worked in Tesco's staff canteen because I fancied a boy on the tills. I served him his lunch in a hairnet and tan tights. Not just that, of course - I had a lovely white onesie.
It's amazing the things that you cry at. I cry when I smell my son's hair in the morning. We have a moment of peace and I'll be like, 'Ahhhh! How can you love this much?'
Nothing I do is by design. It's always the result of a happy accident. I didn't have a career plan. It has just become the way it is. It's all good fun.
People do seem to think that I'm going to be some wicked witch, and then they're always surprised to find out I'm just a little clumsy nerd.
With fantasy and sci-fi, it's based in a real fandom. You're presenting to experts, and their source material is really important to them.
I'm sort of like a T. rex in the world of female actresses. Every time a job is finished, I look at my car and think, 'Could I live in it?
Since being quite young, I've had a very strong sense of independence and survival. As a child, I was on my own two feet emotionally.
It's always weird the thought of taking your clothes off in front of 20 people and then to have it projected in front of many more.
It's a feeling without a lid, of what you would do, physically, verbally, to protect the one thing that is your greatest love.
The more you love something, the worse you tend to audition. If you don't really care about something, you kind of nail it.
I love being physical, but I am extreme either way. I can be superfit. And then I can be really lazy and ignore everything.
I look at someone like Kathryn Bigelow, and I have so much admiration. She's playing in the boy's sandpit, and winning.
I'm 40 next year and I'm very well aware that where I am now, it becomes a bit of a wilderness for actresses.
As a teenager I was clinically depressed. Although I had lots of friends, I found those years very difficult.
I am very much a seat-of-the-pants actor. I will prepare when I have to. But I like being unprepared.
I've said from day one that I've got no problem with nudity. I've done it throughout my career.
Having the tattoo itself is not really for the end result for me. I like having them done.
Does our culture have a need for violence? I don't know. I guess it's a personal thing.
Freedom isn't free at all, that it comes with the highest of costs. The cost of blood.
I hate being looked at. Can't stand it. I know, I know - I picked the wrong career.
I'm just going to stay single forever. I could never live with anybody ever again.
Getting older and having kids, you learn how to become less serious about it all.
Sometimes it's a bizarre, fairly cold, and horrifying thing to be a parent.
It's not socially acceptable to be a complete and utter manipulative cow.
I don't think you should feel guilty about pleasure. Defeats the purpose.
I carry about eight lip balms: Burts Bees, Rosebud Salve, Eos.
Shooting guns is not something I would do in my spare time.
'Dredd' was a weird, little, out-of-the-blue thing for me.
I enjoy what I do and it's a great way to live your life.
I think I cry when I'm angry. I let it go that way.
I could quite happily run a florist or a bake shop.
Cersei in Game of Thrones is quite solid and stiff.
I was obsessed with vampires when I was 13 or 14.
As a child, I was on my own two feet emotionally.
I do what I do; I cant control who thinks what.
I almost never get recognised in the street.
For me, horror movies are a real escape.
I have a playlist of farts on my phone.
I dont want to be owned by anyone.
That scene in 'The Purge' where my kids, Mary's kids, are in danger was really crazy for me, because I suddenly I have my methods as an actor, so I went to the place of 'If somebody came near my children, with bad intent?'
There is something in the act of having tattoos done that I love. It can be quite addictive. I've got a few on my back because my friend is an artist, and a few on my arms. Every time I pass a tattoo parlour, I think, 'Maybe just a tiny one.
I have an internal protectiveness where it's like, if it comes to just me, as frightened as I am of losing someone I love or things going sour or simply being alone, there is a dark place in my brain where I'm like, It could happen and I'm okay, I'm prepared.
I hate being looked at. Can't stand it. I know, I know - I picked the wrong career. I should have been a doctor. If you play certain parts you have this nice face painted on you, and then you have feel as if you have a responsibility to this idea of being beautiful. I hate that about our business.
Getting the role in '300' saved me. I'd been out of work for 11 months after 'The Brothers Grimm.' Once the film came out and didn't do so well, the director Terry Gilliam blamed me for absolutely everything. It was pretty appalling, and I had started to wonder if I'd ever get another job again when I was asked to audition for '300.
