I think you have to challenge yourself constantly. Otherwise, it's boring.
— Janet McTeer
I've always thought it's the qualities of a person that matter. Not their breed, their shape, their color, their sexual preference, age... It's the qualities of their character.
I'm always amazed when anybody remembers anything of my work, and even more so when I get nominated for something I've done. For many years, I was like a horse wearing a pair of blinkers as far as using these awards or nominations in order to boost my career was concerned.
I was always a character actress.
In my heart of hearts, I love theatre. It's the joy and terror of putting a play on, the creativity of it. It is infinitely harder than film and television and more tiring. Your performance is heightened in the way it isn't with film.
I'd rather lose large than win slightly. I think life is an oil painting, not a watercolor.
I feel strongly for the younger actresses when a lot of their career is based on how they look. That must be hard when your looks begin to go and you haven't built up the wealth of character parts to get into something else.
'The King and I' - one of the first films I ever saw.
There are some roles that are a no-brainer. You just have a sure, instinctive 'Yes!'
I was very nervous about the accent. I was very nervous about being an American.
Yes, I was slightly outside everything when I was growing up. My mother jokes that I was exchanged at birth. She brought us up to have traditional values. She was absolutely not part of the '60s generation.
Put a Post-It note on your mirror that says: 'Someone has to succeed. There's no reason why it shouldn't be me.' Repeat before every audition.
But then I got a job selling coffee at the York Theatre, and when I met theatre people, something clicked. I felt comfortable with them; I felt like myself. I decided to go to drama school based just on that feeling. I had never done any acting.
I just want people to focus on the performance.
People will still love and hurt and yearn.
It's hard to learn an American accent. Some of the Rs at the ends of words are incredibly hard.
I'd love to play Hamlet.
You have to capitalise on any success you have and keep doing what you do as well as you can. But how do you define success? In my book, it's to be playing those parts you saw your idols - Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Helen Mirren, Vanessa Redgrave - playing when they were the age you are now.
I've been very fortunate and never not worked.
I was incredibly self-conscious about the way I looked.
All theater is unpredictable. That's the definition of theater.
When you're an actor, you get your ideas from everywhere - even from someone on the street. We're total thieves!
I love gadgets.
People are calling a lot, sending scripts my way. Yes, it's wonderful because, let's face it, there aren't many wonderful scripts for women over the age of 10.
When you're a young English person who wants to be an actress and you have dreams, you dream of being Vanessa Redgrave or Judi Dench.
I have become a marketing tool and I feel very uncomfortable with that. There's no space for me to express myself.
New Yorkers are either the nicest or the rudest.
We are a very close family, and I love them very much, but I'm definitely the odd one out. I live a completely different kind of life style. I always was different. I felt like a fish out of water; I really never knew who I was.
I've always thought if you watch the performance and you don't know about the person, then you only see the performance.
The older you get, the better you get, because you've seen more. You don't necessarily have to go through a lot, but you have to witness it in order to recreate it.
British independent television is exactly the same as independent cinema. Very low budget, interesting, cutting edge stuff.
I suppose that there might have been leading men who were put off from casting me as the ingenue because I was taller than they were, but I've no idea that this ever happened. When I did 'Much Ado About Nothing' opposite Mark Rylance in the West End, we used the difference in our heights as part of their relationship.
I love the way we do theatre in London: I love the fact that everybody is trained.
I find strong roles really interesting. Usually, that means the character is also clever.
There's a reason I live in the Maine woods, where nobody knows what I do for a living. I think you can be better if someone who's coming to see you perform has no idea who you really are.
When you are old enough to... play powerful parts, who cares if you are 45, 55 or 65?
When you create a character, you create it for yourself - you do whatever you want. It's your job to explore it in as many different avenues as you can in order to make it a fully wounded character.
I have always been drawn to strong and interesting women, people who have navigated that world before you and maintained their integrity and sense of self.
My mother and father are still together after forty something years. I lived in one place till I was 6. I lived in another place from when I was 6 till I was 17.
It's naive to think there is a woman in the world who isn't brought up to believe that they are waiting for their soul mate. You even see it in Disney.
I did 'Tumbleweeds' for fun. I did it because I loved it and I hardly even got paid.
I do mostly British projects, and for family reasons and life reasons Britain's my home, where I have a lovely garden.
When children arrive, or when some crisis occurs, couples don't have the resources to deal with it because they've been so busy getting on with their lives. They haven't learned how to sit down and discuss things.
I have very girly hands and I use them a lot when I talk in a way that I think is very feminine.
