Actress

I was an adventurer, and I got married a few times. I kept trying to find a relationship as good as my parents'.

A lot of actors, whatever movie you're working on, you make up a back story just for your own, to work off, even if the audience doesn't have it revealed to them. I think it's important that the audience makes up their own mind.

I love pretending to be other people. The more unlike me they are the better - I find other people endlessly fascinating and myself incredibly boring.

You learn stuff from every character you play about the human condition that can be quite enlightening.

I love gay Mardi Gras in Sydney, which is a big parade, a big march that thousands and thousands of people participate in. And there's one little group... well it's not little, it's got hundreds of people marching, and they're all very sweet, middle-aged and elderly people who are the parents of gay children who are out and proud.

Every director's so different. Everybody has their own modus operandi and I love getting to know different directors in the way they work. David O. Russell is very exciting to be with because he's got a mind like quicksilver.

I love a bit of a sequin and a bead. I do, even though I usually wear trousers, when I put a frock on. I like a bead or a sequin.

I'm a nice middle-class girl in real life, and I'm a mom and a grandma, and I usually play sweet characters.

I usually do get to play the very sweet, charming roles... but I'm not an obvious kind of villain.

A lot of directors want to storyboard you, whereas the best way to get a performance out of an actor is a collaborative process where you listen to the actor's input.

In Australia, I grew up watching 'The Mickey Mouse Club,' my son grew up watching 'Sesame Street,' my grandson's growing up watching 'Dora The Explorer.' So we are sort of saturated with American culture from the day we're born, and to those of those who do have an ear for it, it's second nature.

I've had five weddings but if I'm really honest and if I count significant de factos... I've had nine husbands... which sounds appalling but when you consider I started at 18 and I'm 65 it's not so bad.

I believe in sex on a first date. Otherwise, how do you know if a second date is worth the effort?

I love getting presents. And awards. I'd do whatever they told me to do.

I've had five weddings but if I'm really honest and if I count significant de factos... I've had nine husbands... which sounds appalling but when you consider I started at 18 and I'm 65 it's not so bad.

Most Australians who've got an ear can do an American accent because we grow up listening to them on television and in movies.

I do have friends in Australia who now refer to me as 'Hollywood Jack.'

In Australia, I grew up watching 'The Mickey Mouse Club,' my son grew up watching 'Sesame Street,' my grandson's growing up watching 'Dora The Explorer.' So we are sort of saturated with American culture from the day we're born, and to those of those who do have an ear for it, it's second nature.

I guess just a lively imagination is the best effort an actor can have.

Everything the Coen brothers do is brilliant.