I think I have a deep-seated fear of being misunderstood. Or being misjudged.
Acting is what I do with who I am.
I'm no longer the young woman I was playing before, and I'm in a profession where that continuum that is me is irrelevant to most people - they're meeting me for the first time, seeing me for the first time, and they're seeing an old woman, so that's what I've got to start being.
Cleopatra was exhausting to play, but also completely exhilarating. She creates her own energy.
The language is always powerful in Shakespeare, but with 'Antony and Cleopatra,' the speeches are so big and muscular and rich - exhausting to speak, actually.
I decided I was going to play Cleopatra as someone with a brain. She's kept Egypt, this tiny country, in a balance of power with the almighty Roman empire, and she's done it through force of personality.
Romance is about investing in the future - with older people, there is less time for happy ever after.
I yearn to make a really good, intelligent movie before I die: I don't completely rule out the possibility, but in Hollywood, I'm not bankable.
Where does an actress go after playing Cleopatra's magnificent death? Why didn't Shakespeare write more - and more powerful - roles for mature women?
Male playwrights, on the whole, are probably more interested in male characters. They need women characters to be the women in their lives or to be the domestic difficulty.
I vote, but I don't feel that I'm achieving much when I do.
I've witnessed the survival of the theatre several times when it was meant to be dying.
Luckily, each generation brings forth great writers, actors, directors, and designers.
I'm childish and silly. Most people tease me because I'm a bit daft.
As I have got older, I have become easier on myself. It's about realising things can't be perfect.
I'm very aware that after you've played Cleopatra, there's not a lot that can top that in this sphere, so it means that I want to almost change the sphere I work in rather completely because I will always be comparing it to Cleopatra.
I do think that there are certain parts, if you are lucky enough to play them, that are bigger than you, and they stretch you. I don't think you become a bigger person, but you develop certain muscles you didn't have before.
