When I was a little girl, there was this unbelievably cool female bus driver who'd work near us. I remember thinking I'd like to be her when I grew up.
— Maxine Peake
I'm a big techphobe. Someone else helps me run my Twitter; I wouldn't be able to trust myself.
Nobody's impressed back home. All my friends were going, 'Oh right, so you're doing a play up in Leeds? Another depressing one is it? Do you mind if we don't bother coming?' I love that.
After my mum and dad got divorced, I was entitled to free school dinners, but my mum said, 'Under no circumstances,' because she was proud.
Food is important in working out a character. How she eats is a window into her temperament. If I think she likes her food, I'll put on a few pounds, or lose a few if she lives on her nerves.
When I'm not acting, I don't feel like an actor.
Everybody's in a situation; everybody has a story. It's about finding out why.
I love hoovering. People go to therapists; I've got a Hoover.
I think an actor's process should be very personal and private, and sometimes I have thought, 'Oh, please, put it away now.'
People think I'm clever, which is hilarious. I'm like, 'When did this happen? People used to think I couldn't string a sentence together.'
I used to think the store detective had followed me all the way home and would knock on the door and go, 'Hello, is this your daughter? She's got three blue lipsticks and a moisturiser from Boots in her bag.' We just used to nick crap. Not even stuff we wanted.
They always said to me that I needed to be more feminine. I think it's so wrong. Being boisterous doesn't mean you are not feminine.
If I feel like if there's a few too many people on that path with me, then I want to jump off and find another one.
I watch 'Take Me Out' mainly for Paddy McGuinness. When we were younger, we worked together as lifeguards at the Bolton Leisure Centre.
I think, as a woman, you've got to make so many sacrifices.
When I graduated, I was my biggest ever: 15 stone, with a boyfriend - my first - of just 11 stone. I was 23 years old. It wasn't just affecting my career: it was a health issue as well.
Every job still feels like the first time.
We need a wider sense of community because we're all on the same planet.
As a human, if you're in a scary situation, you pretty much forget about everything else! You just try and survive.
When we were doing 'Criminal Justice,' they were filming 'Clash of the Titans' nearby and we kept nicking off to their catering tent and going, 'Look what they've got!'
The first posh meal out I had was on my 10th birthday.
I think with 'Silk' there's something there for everyone: it's a legal drama, but it's human as well - you get to dip into the lives of the barristers and clerks.
For me, I'm still always that kid from Bolton.
I think all things are political... How women are portrayed - that's a big thing for me. What is this role trying to say about women? Is this woman weak or victimised, and, if so, do we get to understand why?
I get very irate with actors when they talk about how distressing it all is. I mean, it's only acting. Please.
I take bits and pieces from everything. But I think the Method can be very isolating, and sometimes it's more about ego than playing the character truthfully.
The 'Bolton News' is the best place for online comments. They say I'm an absolute idiot and a communist anarchist. I was never an anarchist; I was a communist!
Often, when I am playing difficult roles, I have a problem sleeping because I can't leave the character behind.
What is male and what is female? I don't always feel female.
We still have an underclass in this country who are constantly ignored and vilified.
I love 'Splash!' and 'Take Me Out.' Not that I'd ever do 'Splash!' It's the parading on British TV in a swimming costume I couldn't handle.
You want to go to your deathbed saying, 'I didn't sell out.' But it's a tough business to keep to what you believe in and get through and do well.
I was a tomboy. In my clubbing days, my friend Lucy Davies-Hunt - half-Iranian, looked like Yasmin Le Bon - could wear catsuits, while I was the one in the sweatshirt, jeans, and Fila boots.
It's interesting when people say, 'You always play strong women,' because as far as I'm concerned, women are strong. I think that's what women are. We have got that vulnerability, but we have got that strength. We are survivors.
I don't really engage with that world of technology, which might be to my detriment.
I'm always an advocate of 'acting is reacting,' which can be difficult.
I don't have massive ambitions to be anywhere other than in this country doing good work.
At drama school, I was told, 'Lay off the chips, or you'll never play Juliet.' Sometimes, in the stock room of the set of 'Dinnerladies,' I'd put away three or four Mars bars while waiting for a scene. Then, at 24, I lost five stone.
I find these dramas fascinating - it's a world that many of us fortunately don't dip into. The legal system is all around us, but the majority of us don't have to go into a court, so it's a way into another world that is unusual.
We take things at face value, don't we? You form an opinion about something immediately, but you ought to step back a bit. Take in the vista first.
Cooking, you can keep. I've not the slightest interest in it.
I've always fancied being a bit of warrior, on a horse swinging a sword around, sorting out the men... Oh yes, that sounds lovely.
Sometimes the darker the work, the more fun you can have.
I care about my work, but I don't care about getting it wrong. The more you do, the more you realise nobody's going to die.
When I was growing up, because I was a bit overweight and boyish, I thought I wasn't attractive to the opposite sex, but I have since met lads from my school who said I just seemed unapproachable.
We shouldn't still be asking, 'Have you got children? Why've you not got children? Ooh, you must have children!' Bog off, d'you know what I mean?
'Toast of London' is a must-watch. Matt Berry's off-the-wall humour is slightly surreal and a little bit deviant. That's why I also love 'House of Fools.'
I went to the Old Bailey, and I met a judge, and I was petrified, but they were like, 'Oh, you're an actor, well, great.' It was a bit like we're cut from the same cloth a little bit.
I reckoned my accent and class would count against me; I didn't see actresses as being working-class.
I'm very independent, probably quite selfish, and like being able to disappear at the drop of a hat without having to explain myself - most men would find that a pain, wouldn't they?
