Gina McKee

The National Youth Theatre did one very simple but incredible thing for me: it made me realise I had choices.

I'm extremely self-critical. Although I try not to be ridiculous about it, wearing horsehair shirts and all that. It's a private exercise I don't necessarily share with other people.

Usually I can go for three or four weeks and then I start to bake cakes or make jewellery and I think, 'hang on a minute, I'm obviously bored rigid. I need to get back out there.'

I was one of those kids who found it difficult to eat anything that looked like an animal.

Being an actor somehow can be a perverse extension of that feeling we generally all have as children, that feeling of wanting to please. Of course you're looking for affirmation, encouragement.

I think I'm very open and friendly and warm.

I think it's nice to be able to make a product, put it out there and let other people decide what they think.

I love that, even after jumping through hoops forever, I can still get that buzz, that hook. That's very healthy, but it's bittersweet, too, because if you don't get the part, you have to deal with the disappointment. I don't think I'll ever negotiate those peaks and troughs wholly healthily.

There are different definitions of love, and one of the most wonderful definitions of love is to allow somebody to be.

There's a way of negotiating how you portray your private life publicly that I've never had the skill to do.

I don't feel comfortable talking about my private life, and some people in my private life don't feel comfortable about me talking about it. So I don't.

Where I grew up in the North-east, the community there, and the way people relate to one another, goes very deep. But I don't define myself as a Northerner in that I don't live in the North.