I have always lived an ordinary life, and always will. It's who and what has to do with my job that makes it 'unordinary.' I cook, go to the supermarket, pick my children up at school.
I love the routine. I love getting up in the morning and getting breakfast and packing lunches and doing the school run. Those things are really important to me. Because I think that those small but key moments are crucial for a kid.
I'm not the pedigree kid. I'm not classically trained. I didn't come from the fancy home, no.
The good and bad things are what form us as people... change makes us grow.
I don't really do simple. I'm not really interested in simple at the end of the day, because nothing's ever simple, and nothing's ever perfect. People certainly aren't - I would hope, anyway, because that would be boring, wouldn't it?
I was 17 when Peter Jackson asked me to be in 'Heavenly Creatures.'
Mildred Pierce was capable of great acts of love as a mother.
I don't go to the gym because I don't have time, but I do Pilates workout DVDs for 20 minutes or more every day at home.
I was living in my lovely little two-bedroom flat in north London... and suddenly, I couldn't just walk down the street and buy a pint of milk.
Ah, my dad's whistle. On holidays when I was a kid, we would all be off in the rock pools along the beach. When it came time to go, we'd hear the whistle and we'd all come running. Like dogs!
By nature, I'm a very positive person, and because I'm happy in myself, and in my life, and I've got a great husband, and beautiful children, and I have a job that I love that calls for a certain amount of emotional expression, I get to realise a lot of my dreams and aspirations.
My dad was very much a struggling actor and spent more of his life as a postman, as a member of a tarmac firm, as a van driver.
I need to be looked after. I'm not talking about diamond rings and nice restaurants and fancy stuff - in fact, that makes me uncomfortable. I didn't grow up with it, and it's not me, you know. But I need someone to say to me, 'Shall I run you a bath?' or 'Let's go to the pub, just us.'
I will tell you that when I was heavy, people would say to me - and it was such a backhanded compliment - they would say, 'You've got such a beautiful face,' in the way of, like, 'Oh, isn't it a shame that from the neck down you're questionable.'
When I was heavy, people would say to me - and it was such a backhanded compliment - they would say, 'You've got such a beautiful face,' in the way of, like, 'Oh, isn't it a shame that from the neck down you're questionable.'
One thing I love about being back is English rain. Looking out of the window now, it's raining, and the sky is dark; I love it. To me, those are reassuringly English things. I love it when it rains.
The happiness I feel in having a family has brought me a real beauty.
My grandparents - both of my mother's parents - were actors, and they ran the Reading Repertory Theatre Company, through the town of Reading, where I come from.
One of the things that I was always, and still am, is quite resourceful.
'The Reader' is about a young man's experience of falling in love with somebody who, it turns out, made some choices that were unavoidable in her life that resulted in horrific crimes against humanity.