It's incredibly liberating not to have any mascara on.

With every single thing I do, I can't be daunted by the person who's gone before me, otherwise I would never do anything at all, would I?

It's brilliant to have a part where vanity just doesn't come into it at all. Whenever people describe me, it's always as "model-turned-actress" - about 25 years ago! I'm now a mother of three, and I don't see myself in that way any more. But it's what other people have seen me as - and pigeonholed me. Perhaps that's changing now I'm nearly 40.

The other day I was taking the kids to school when, just as I was leaving the house, Matthew (husband Matthew Macfadyen shouted, "You're not going out like that?" He joked that I looked like I was going into hospital for an operation. I had to admit I looked rather appalling and I frantically started brushing my hair. I'm certainly not one of those yummy mummies like Claudia Schiffer on the school run. Quite the opposite.

[on her sex scenes in Complicity (2000)] My character uses Jonny (Jonny Lee Miller) purely for sex. I think he felt a bit insecure, because I had to play a woman taking control. She used him as a man often uses a woman, which I found quite fun. But Jonny didn't particularly enjoy it and kept a little pair of pants on while we were filming.

[on her sex scenes in Complicity (2000)] Complicity (2000) is dark and more contemporary than anything I have done before. I find it quite hard to evaluate and was watching it recently, thinking: "My God, I'm so unsexy." I suppose everyone thinks that about their scenes, because we can remember how they're filmed. There was one consolation though - I looked much thinner than I thought I would.

Lara Croft is such a strong and powerful character, but she also has an edge to her, which was great to portray vocally.

Well, I think if you do a lot of interviews, you're laying yourself open. If you put yourself out, accept every invitation to every premiere, then you can't really complain when people knock on your front door and photograph you in the street. With Matthew and Pride & Prejudice (2005), the whole thing was huge, but even then, we haven't been followed around that much. Hopefully that's because we keep ourselves to ourselves.

I've nothing against stay-at-home mums, but I love going to work, I love what I do and I wouldn't want to start resenting my home life if I was staying home 365 days a year.

I was sent the DVD of me in ShakespeaRe-Told: Macbeth (2005), and there was this big, dramatic moment and I was thinking, this is looking good, and Myles came in and said, "Oh, Mummy, when are you going to do something good like Madagascar (2005)?"

Coming from a family where the parents had been together for 40 years, you never imagine that divorce is going to happen to you.

Complicity (2000) is risqué, but I'm not bothered by such things. I watched RoboCop (1987) the other night and it was full of gratuitous violence. I would rather see gratuitous sex.