French culture takes ageing very seriously. There's much less ageism than in Anglo-Saxon countries.
Movies make you immortal and ageless.
As actors, we're always asked to portray and react to these extreme circumstances, otherwise it's not interesting. They are agonizing things to think about.
Baths are my favorite thing. I can have two, three a day.
I am so bored with seeing stories about a mature man of 65 falling in love with a beautiful girl of 32.
It doesn't make you feel very good being mean and fierce; it is much nicer playing people who are kind and sweet.
'The English Patient' was a huge turning point in my career and my life; it became this huge thing. But the whole Oscar build-up got completely out of control; I spent more time talking about that film than I spent making it!
We all come in different shapes and sizes, and that's fine by me.
I'm a bit of a Doubting Thomas - always worrying about things.
I think the sheer number of pop stars has kind of drowned out, somewhat, our interest. We're just submerged.
I can't get into all that physical stuff of having to have flawless skin... Sometimes you see people and it looks like someone's got an eraser and made their face a little blurry - their traits seem to go out of focus.
Often, the roles I'm offered in England are melancholic women who are filled with regret for the past, regret for their fading beauty.
The Cannes film festival is about big-budget films but also remarkable films made in different political regimes by film-makers with little resources.
I really like acting in French. It's actually quite different for me, from acting in English. It's fun acting in a foreign language. You're liberated or freed from preconceptions.
Most films seem to be about a man and a women falling in love at some point and once you pass forty-five, it's almost disgusting to fall in love.
As an adult, it's a huge shock to be orphaned; as a child it's just hideous, ghastly.
I think people do work too much. I've never been able to understand the whole 'make hay while the sun shines' thing. Either I want to work or I don't want to work.
I still absolutely love 'The Sound of Music' and anything with Julie Andrews in it.
If you are a successful actor, which is what I am, then you tend to get labelled very quickly and easily.
At school, I always wanted to belong to a gang, and no one would have me. So I'd have make my own gang, but with everybody else's leftovers.
