We actors are like children--all you have to do is feed and encourage us, and we'll be fine. That controlling animus has gone. No director treats us badly anymore. In fact, they should put that in the end credits of The Girl (2012): "No actor has been harmed in the making of this movie".

[on Alfred Hitchcock] But he was delusional. People say he was vulnerable--oh, for goodness sake, don't be mealy-mouthed about it! He just needed to grow up--that may sound unkind, but it's realistic. There again, if he had grown up, he wouldn't have been such a brilliant filmmaker. All his many flaws made him the great director he was.

[on her role of Alfred Hitchcock's wife Alma Reville in The Girl (2012)] Alma was very tolerant. She mothered Hitchcock, because he was like a bloody child. He was a bloody idiot with Tippi [Tippi Hedren. People should have told him, "Just make the bloody film and go home".

[on Vera Drake (2004)] You don't have a script, so we prepared that film for six months and then filmed it for three and a bit months. Nothing is improvised on film but for me I created with Mike [director Mike Leigh] that woman literally from the day she was born, so I know everything about her life. And of course we can't do it in every job because there is not the time, because most films you literally get the script, you learn it immediately and you turn up and you just do it. Which, with a lot of the work I do, that's plenty of preparation. But for something like that--and I'd never worked with him before--and it was a real eye-opener. And to have that happen to me in a time when--I hope--was the middle of my career, it was like going back to drama school and starting all over again. (On Vera Drake (2004))

Agents and producers have to get you into a box to accommodate their limited imaginations.

As you well know, we don't have a script when we're shooting. But after the film, the screenplay gets published and you can read the whole thing.

As Vera Drake, I feel Mike [director Mike Leigh] has used all of me as a dramatic actress, in a positive sense.

All my heroes-Timothy Spall, Lesley Manville--are just so brilliant. And I thought, "Well, I'm not in that league".

[what she thinks about celebrities getting free gifts at award shows] It's obscene, isn't it? Just ridiculous. We don't need any of these things! Give it to people who need it. I'll never have to buy moisturizer again. I might start eating it soon.

I reached the point now, where I have become as comfortable on a movie set as I am on stage. Before, I was trying to figure it out, how much should I emote, where should I stand? But now I know more about the camera, and what goes into the mix, technically. I'm much more comfortable doing film now.

You know you can be very famous without being a great actress, and that's not good for me.

I am a character actress, well, let's say, I am a leading character actress who does interesting, odd parts.

[on her view about abortion, something she's been asked a lot after her role in Vera Drake (2004)] I'm not Susan Sarandon. I don't want to bang a drum. I think I'm just going to say, "I'm pro-choice" and leave it at that.

Well, my parents were working people. You just worked. I've always wanted a long career, not an instant one. I left RADA [Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts], I worked in rep for six years, then I came to London and came to the National Theatre. What's better than that? I don't know what's better than that. "Oh, but surely you wanted to be a big film star when you were 21?" No, because I would've been rubbish. Because I spent a lot of time in rep being OK, being very bad, and then being quite good. And I could practice my craft. You know, being exposed that early, to be brilliant in your first job, where do you go from there? It's given me time, which is a luxury.

[on working with Mike Leigh in Vera Drake (2004)] He's the nicest . . . because he works so hard, and I think he expects other people to work hard. And in my book, that's enough. We don't roll into rehearsal at 10:30 and have coffee. We start at 8:00 a.m., we finish at 8 o'clock at night. I mean, you don't want to dither around him. And I think that's fine. I think he's entitled to say what he wants and what he doesn't want. He knows a lot about it. He doesn't have to be nice if he doesn't want to, just to be charming.

We're all unique as actors. To yourself, you are unique, you have to think, "I'm me, I'm not going to bunch myself with other people". Agents and producers have to get you into a box, to accommodate their limited imaginations.

I go up for a job, someone else gets it, what can I do about that? That might be in another league to me, people being competitive. But it's not like running a race. I'm not against anyone. I think that's a much more American thing, that.