Miranda Otto

I was researching my family tree, and I was deeply hoping I was going to turn out to be Eastern European, but I'm not.

I find, in film, we're always making things and having these intense friendships and then losing track of people. When I first start a job, I'm quite nervous, and it takes me a while to find my place, and then it feels like I'm just really loving it and feeling great, and it's all over.

That fascinated me. I used to watch all these operations on TV and thought it would be really cool to do that.

I guess I find it easy to play uptight characters.

My parents split up when I was young, and they are still good friends. I think it's often projected that these things have to be so acrimonious. It's so often not the case.

I ask myself, 'What is the value of acting and the attention that actors get? And yet there are so many people in the world doing incredible things for mankind, and they don't get much attention.' I do question about that, but I don't think I would've been a great doctor. I think I would've been a good surgeon. That fascinated me.

It is hard sometimes to see how other actors are working when you are working with them.

Premieres are pretty fun, but probably the most fun was when I went to see 'The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King,' and I'd just flown in from Africa, and I hadn't even seen the movie yet. So, the first time I saw it was at the premiere. It was really fun.

Sometimes, as a young woman, you are boxed in more to playing characters that are emotional and vulnerable.

There are so many successful women working in intelligence, but it's still seen as a male-dominated world.

I've made my peace with being in the spotlight, definitely.

It's so great to come in and do something where you know how strong the format of the show is and you're working with writers and directors who worked on the original show. It feels like you're going into a well-run ship already. Then it's just a matter of creating these new characters.

Acting is bluffing, pretending to be something.

It could be a stupid thing to say, but people should realize that it is easy to get concerned about yourself and to lose contact.

I enjoyed playing someone who is a professional, intelligent, defined by her work and not her role as a wife or mother.

QVB have a long history of supporting Australian talent.

I like working intensely, then going away and thinking about it, working out why it didn't work and then coming back to it. It makes the work richer, I think.

Yes, I like doing TV. I like the idea of going to work with the same people.

I was cast in a film toward the end of high school. Even then, I wasn't sure.

I think most big stars do have just a certain amount of mystery; you don't know everything.

Some scripts you read and say, 'I've just got to do this' and you find a way of making it work. Some things you turn down because of the impact on family.

I think, with TV, you create kind of a family to work with.

People often say, 'I thought you were much taller.' So, I don't know. Maybe it's the way I stand or something.

Usually, I end up looking for something completely different to who I last played. But there is just a spark that's lit when I read a script or character I want to play.

The guys on the stunt team are really fantastic. It's really funny, because for all the aggression they have to display on screen, they're actually really happy, good- natured people.

Certain characters get to me and stay with me for a while.

Around the time of 'The Lord of the Rings,' it was a shock to me just how big it is to be on that kind of media juggernaut. It was a big thing and the scrutiny was shocking.

When I was working on 'Homeland,' there was a consultant who helped me a lot... I went to Washington and met with my consultant there, and he actually organised a lunch with several people from the Intelligence Committee.

I have plenty to look forward to, I'm sure.

There's a film I did years ago, 'Love Serenade,' that I still really love. It's such an oddball sense of humor. It was a really special film for me when I did it.

You are being hit with tabloid-journalism bi-lines of what you are doing because you have suddenly become a star.

Soho House is normally a private-members club, but the Berlin one has a hotel open to the public. Many beautiful rooms in a cool location, and who knows who you'll run into in the lobby!

Generally, with films, what tends to happen is that a few people get a lot of momentum out of it, and a lot of people don't.

It's a career that's enticing because you go on stage, for example, and people clap. You get that affirmation, but you can't go into acting for that because it's really your own self-belief that's going to get you through.

Alison Carr on 'Homeland.' She was such great character to play, so clever and full of surprises. I was sad to see her go.

There are some great women's roles in television... so much more interesting than what I was reading in film scripts.

I think you go through a period as a teenager of being quite cool and unaffected by things.

Any time you have intimacy with someone, there is something between them.

In the past, I was always drawn to really quirky, idiosyncratic characters.

When I was younger, people would always say, 'Are you a ballet dancer?' I had that look - one of those skinny kids with my hair in a bun.

The whole theatre world deeply attracts me. I love rehearsing and having time to make mistakes and laugh and discover things about yourself and other people - and the energy level is great.

Everyone says you should get a photo taken of yourself while you're pregnant. I've got a film. It'll be nice for my daughter, too, to look at one day. She was in it.

If there is a book that the script came from you have to read it, you have to see what you can get out of it: mood, back story and things that may not even be in the film. They kick off your imagination and broaden the character, I think.

That is definitely something that I feel more comfortable with now. When I did 'Lord of the Rings,' it was something I wasn't quite prepared for, I didn't know how to deal with that sort of attention, and I kind of shied away from that, but I'm better at dealing with that now - a lot better.

In everything I do, I like to set the idea for girls that they can do anything. I was really moved by Hillary Clinton's speech when she lost the election - she didn't want young girls to feel like it wasn't possible and wanted them to know a female president will eventually happen. That's important.

I really enjoy playing intelligent characters. I'm more interested in that than just emotional kind of Mum characters.

I always feel this huge responsibility to the script when it arrives, keeping it confidential.

I tend to not think about the kind of movie things I want to be doing, because I've worked in all sorts of different places, and I've spent all sorts of time in England, and I'd still do things in Australia and in America.

You do remember things that people say in movies. You remember particular lines and things that are funny. But, you also remember really strong images. Images have a way of bypassing your brain and hitting you emotionally.

I think 'Rake' was a very clever crossover, actually, because it does lend itself to the city of L.A.

As actors, we are accustomed to moving around, and it's always great to live and work in a city - you feel like you are truly living a life there.

Sadly, my German is almost non-existent, although I did a little at school.

I think film likes me better than the theatre does for some reason.

I love the Russians for their verve, their melancholia, their vivacity, their unpredictability, and their humour.

It's good to see a man who isn't afraid to live out his masculinity.

I think that's the kind of women that people are interested in. They're interested in strong women characters who are stronger than the male characters sometimes, in some ways. That's what's interesting and attractive about women.

I have been really lucky to play roles younger than myself for most of my career.

I got into medicine at university, then deferred a year to see. Then I started acting and just never went back to university.

I worry about my sides. I worry where everything goes. I worry that I'm going to be the leak. I give all my scripts back!

I'm so fair that I didn't go in the sun as a child. When all my friends were on the beach, I was going to ballet. The teachers there didn't like you going in the sun, so I never did.

It's a little daunting coming on to work with actors that you respect so much.

There are so many things from movies that are remembered, that are just looks on people's faces or incredible vistas or beautiful pictures. That is a very important part of cinema.

I hate being pigeon-holed into anything. To me, the best thing is when the next job comes and is completely different to the one that I just had.

Sitting down for the actor read when you first get together, it's like the Last Supper because you don't know who will be there for the next read.

Every director is completely different.

I've been on shows where they're just setting it up, and they're trying to find the tone of the writing and performance. That's always a really chaotic period on shows.

Acting is a freelance career... you never stop having to prove yourself and fight for work.

The detective genre is not easy because you've got to get to a conclusion that is unexpected.

I grew up seeing a lot of theatre, and it was theatre that really seduced me into acting - not film or television.

Young actors are serious about their work and don't take any time out from it. I'm very serious about my work; there are probably only two films I've done where I had a really good time.

I'd always had a big thing for the '60s.

I love buildings that aren't purpose-built.

England is very interested as well, and other countries if I could speak the languages!

Writers would hate me saying this, and I love words, but I have to say that cinema exists, on one level, for the power of the big image and what that image does.

In Australia, it's people from Asian countries who most often recognise me. There are often people just looking at me at the supermarket, like they're shocked to think I would go to the supermarket.

There's such big pressure on people who are incredibly famous, on those who have people sitting outside their front door and taking photos every time they move.

As your career goes on, you get to flex your brain a little more and play characters that are stronger and more intelligent.

I haven't found the experience of being hot very great. It usually means you are about to be overexposed. I would rather be respected.