Actress

I always do a lot of work around characters to make them real people because, oftentimes, they really are a sliver of a person. Even with truly wonderful writers, women characters are there to emote, and they're often incredibly chaste or worthy. Or they're a 'different type of woman', which is the worst.

You know those bumpers in the two lanes when you go bowling? I go out there with two of them, metaphorically, every day.

Every time you get the chance to work with somebody you admire and would like to collaborate with... it feels like the best opportunity that's ever come your way, whether that's in fringe theatre or a really big-budget Hollywood movie.

We worked with David Thibodeau, who wrote a book about Waco, on which the series is based. He's one of the nine survivors.

Sometimes I can receive the world and regurgitate my version of events easily and sometimes it's hard.

I get scared of really simple things and not scared of big things.

I don't relate to people that look like me. I find it deeply unsatisfying to play a version of myself. It was something I had to figure out really early on, when I was at RADA, because I was being cast, over and over again, as the young, virginal thing. When I left RADA, I was on an absolute mission to never wear make-up.

We all grew up aware of Agatha Christie; there is no writer more prolific than her in England.

I'm still wearing Doc Martens. I'm sure that you can have a baby and wear Doc Martens, but... Maybe I'll be the first person to give birth in Doc Martens!

I'm an artist; affirmation is like catnip to me.

Maybe I've just been incredibly fortunate, but there's a level of dedication, devotion, intensity and seriousness around me every day.

David Suchet's Poirot was very charming, and, when I'm away in the U.S., those series remind me of being in Britain and being British on a Sunday night.

I'm interested in having a relationship with the world that's not my own.

I have no interest in doing anything other than good work.

I'm not even sure that any of us are ever ready for anything. We can be ripe, or over-ready, but what is that moment when we're actually ready?

People are fascinating. They're so unique and I think what's more fascinating is the reason behind the physical characteristic, the enigma, that's where the gold dust is.

Fear is the enemy. I distrust it. Any feeling or decision I make that might be motivated by fear I quickly reassess.

Both of my grandfathers fought in the Second World War, and my great-grandfather died at the Somme in the First World War. I never truly believed that the War just finished and everyone was happy-clappy, brought out the bunting, and felt everything was okay again. That's definitely not my impression of the fall-out of war.

My grandparents were deeply affected by war, and it was obvious that the men who fought were horribly affected, as were the women who remained at home.

I've always worked very hard.