I subscribe to no religion. But I believe that in the creation of art, there can be moments of God.
Andrea Riseborough
There's always hope, and there's always despair.
I worked on 'Happy-Go-Lucky' for seven-and-a-half months, and I'm in it for two minutes - largely because Sally Hawkins turned left instead of right.
There's something really simple and idyllic about living in a house very close to the water.
I've always thrown like a girl.
Fear is the enemy. I distrust it. Any feeling or decision I make that might be motivated by fear I quickly reassess.
My face is almost like a canvas - a blank canvas in the sense that the hair on my face is very, very fine and my skin is incredibly fair and my hair is quite dark, and that's very unusual.
I've worked opposite so many male actors whose egos have been so delicate that it was just so hard to do the work.
I have quite a collection of ironic band T shirts.
Sometimes you need to break away from something in order to know how much you need or want it.
People think I'm totally crackers.
I think impersonation is a great art. It's something that I enjoy doing, in a frivolous and lighthearted way. But I don't flatter myself to think I'm an impersonator.
I don't read reviews, and it's not because I don't think I can learn something, I'm sure I could learn a lot. I just that I feel very passionately about the work and especially when you're doing theater, you really only need one director and when you read reviews, you feel like you have twelve, because you respond to them, naturally.
I think the most important thing when you're telling a story is to just tell the story as best as you possibly can.
I'm an odd mixture. I'm a sort of Geordie punk who started in classical theatre. It means nobody ever knows quite where to put me, but I like that.
Often, I'll read a script and the female character's an extension or serves some sort of purpose in terms of the male character's narrative and it just isn't fully formed. But they will be very beautiful. Whether a secretary or a doctor or a vet, they will be very beautiful.
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.
Transformation as a female actor is allowed up to a certain extent - as long as they can still recognize you on a red carpet. For a woman to be a shape-shifter, and to be that malleable in spirit, is really not OK with the patriarchy.
I think any artist is a perfectionist by their nature.
I think every work is hard in different ways.
Sometimes I can receive the world and regurgitate my version of events easily and sometimes it's hard.
Maybe I've just been incredibly fortunate, but there's a level of dedication, devotion, intensity and seriousness around me 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.
I am quite odd-looking in real life.
Sometimes I can think of nothing more blissful than going to Berkeley and reading Byron for three years.
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 an artist; affirmation is like catnip to me.
I'm very pragmatic.
When you're playing a romantic version of a real person, you're playing a version of the truth.
When I was little, I would always try and look into the television screen along the sides. I kept thinking if you looked in there, you could see what was happening off camera.
I don't like getting dressed up. It's hard because as a woman, as an actor, the whole world wants you to enjoy dressing up.
When I talk about work or my take on life, all the joyfulness and excitement never seem to make it in.
I love the company of actors, but the crazier it gets, the more I've come to realise how valuable my time is with my friends who work on the land or are builders or, you know, make music. Work in offices. Run shops.
I think it's the easiest thing in the world to be horribly critical about yourself.
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?
I think, really, what I'm interested in is whole women, real people.
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.
Puberty is an extremely traumatic process even if you don't realize it. It kind of lives with you for like 10 years.
I've worked with so few female directors.
I've always worked very hard.
I am a Graham Greene fan - I'm just a ferocious reader. I read an awful lot when I get the time.
You can't tell what's going to fulfill you in different stages in your life.
When I was younger, I used to try to fit in, but now I'm much more comfortable with just being myself.
I can't tell you how disheartening it is to be told to go home because the director is filming you from behind and you don't have the right kind of body. As an actress, to be told that... Well, it's just a very odd set of circumstances.
It's hard for us to imagine, as humans, that we'll become less powerful. But it'll be healthier for the planet and for the eco-system if that does happen. If humans are going to merge with machines, then let's get on with it. I love humans, but I also love dinosaurs - I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have wanted them to die out, either.
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.
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.
Women are really complex and totally enigmatic. Humans are really complex, but in film, we've only ever seen that with men. We've seen antiheroes time and again with male characters.
I tend to be overly responsible for other people's feelings.
