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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

Every director is completely different.

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.

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

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

Acting is bluffing, pretending to be something.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

I guess I find it easy to play uptight characters.

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.

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

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

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.

I love buildings that aren't purpose-built.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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 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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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