What nourishes me also destroys me.
I'd go from film to film and almost detach from one world and jump in another. I was living as these people and not having a self. I didn't know who I was. And things just get really dark.
I think that what happens when you lose a parent, where you lose - you drop into a different kind of serious.
Maleficent was always so elegant. She always was in control. And to play her was difficult. I worked on my voice a lot. She's bigger than me. She's on a different level of performance that I have never done.
If I didn't have my films as an outlet for all the different sides of me, I would probably be locked up.
I loved being Maleficent. I was quite sad to put my staff down and put my horns away because somehow, she just lives in a different world.
My whole family have all been through a difficult time. My focus is my children, our children.
I prefer directing to acting. There is huge freedom that comes from being behind the camera. It brings a lot of responsibilities as well but is intensely rewarding.
I want to support other women because of the opportunities I've had - and I've had a lot of opportunities. What I try as a female director is to do the best job I can and, in the meantime, bring attention to as many other female directors and writers as I can.
I was of the generation where most of the Disney princesses and female characters were not girls that I admired. They just weren't characters I looked up to and identified with.
I actually feel like women in my position, when we have all at our disposal to help us, shouldn't complain when we consider all of the people who are really struggling and don't have the means or support. Many people are single, raising children. That's hard.
Our diversity is our strength. What a dull and pointless life it would be if everyone was the same.
None of my kids want to be actors. They are actually very interested in being musicians. I think they like the process of film from the outside. Mad is interested in editing. Pax loves music and deejaying.
When I was little... I didn't relate to princesses. I saw Maleficent, and I just thought she was so - she was so elegant.
My mother was a very natural woman. She never spoiled herself, never wore make-up, and wore modest jewellery, but she always had a few special items for when she wanted to feel like a lady. One of those special items - and I remember it because it seemed so elegant - was her Guerlain powder.
Women have a certain sexuality, and I think their bodies are beautiful, and I'm not embarrassed to explore that in a film. But there are things you get offered that are vulgar and violent - just like there's a side of me that's vulgar and violent.
The side of fairytales I don't like is that they always have happy endings, that there's just good and evil, and things are perfect. But life is a little more complicated, and that's what I try to teach my kids.
If you have enough people sitting around telling you you're wonderful, then you start believing you're fabulous, then someone tells you you stink and you believe that too!
I'm getting a wrinkle above my eyebrow because I just can't stop lifting it, and I love that you know.
Maleficent has suffered abuse in the past, and there's a reason why she is now as furious as she is. And I think that children who have been outcast and abused in any way will relate to her. There's a beautiful side to her; she's not just a dark person. She has all these facets. And that is interesting.