Julie Walters

I wanted above all else not to be like my mum.

I'm too young at 50. I'm not grown up yet. There's part of everybody like that.

Jane Austen was an extraordinary woman; to actually be able to survive as a novelist in those days - unmarried - was just unheard of.

That's why I'm an actress - escaping into a world.

I'd love to be in another film, but they haven't asked me. I think it's a shame but the prospects of me doing another one now are remote. Please do campaign on my behalf.

There is this idea that appealing to youth is the only way forward. But that is no longer the case. Youth is not everything. Now we have all the baby-boomers in their 60s, like me, who are actively engaged in life - we're not retiring, we're not just being put out to grass once we hit 60.

It wasn't being an alcoholic - it was going wild. It happened when I got famous. It was like having my teens in my early thirties: blotting out your life, not having to think about anything.

I'd like to think there'll be too much of real life going on for me to want to do much acting.

The characters do have a life of their own; it's weird.

The money isn't a lure. I've done very well out of this business.

I didn't come into the business to get awards or titles.

I always loved my mother, felt loved, but she was judgmental. Her father in Ireland didn't approve of women generally, and she took on his values. She believed her own mother was foolish.