I've learned so many things from directors in my acting career. There are even some things I've learned that I didn't want to do. There are those directors who've really made me shine and others who've made me opaque.

I came to Hollywood and I loved it. It was a great time, but in my head I was still elsewhere, in Europe. I believed in a certain cinema, which I still do believe in - a certain European cinema - and as a young woman being in America, I thought I was being taken away from that.

As an actress you can participate, you can be a co-author, help the director. But I always wanted to be able to make the big decisions.

When I think of Italy now, I think of accessories, possessions, bad TV, fake boobs, BMWs.

I try really hard not to be attached to success.

I have a very big phone book and a very long reach around the world. And I think - I don't think, I know - that 95 percent of the people who I know who weren't born into success who have become successful and done things that are different and made a lot of money and had a lot of excitement in their life are people who never hear the word 'no.'

Our success just flies in the face of critics or people who would rather that we just failed... because we didn't fit into the style of the times or our lyrics were too upfront or too earnest or whatever.

You never get time at Working Title, sadly, to enjoy any film's success, because you're worrying about the next lot.