Emily Watson

In my early career I was like a goldfish. Rejection didn't affect me; I'd just forget how bad it was and keep going back for more. ”

I sometimes feel like it's difficult for people to relate to me, until they spend, like, a day with me, and until they walk around with me in public. ”

I have to be a lot more calculating because I'm a very private person. I actually really struggle with the attention; I'm generally a pretty shy kind of a person. So it's tough figuring out how to manage it. But there are ways of managing it, and you just have to be smart. ”

I grew up without a television. It meant that I read lots of books and entertained myself. ”

It's an incredible privilege for an actor to look into the camera. It's like looking right into the heart of the film, and you can't take that lightly. ”

It's a whole different kind of anxiety. But the great thing about doing a theatre job is that once the ball starts rolling you just have to go with it, it's inexorable. ”

The film Punch - Drunk Love is how you see the world when you're in love. You don't see somebody's psychological baggage necessarily, you see the person walking out of the light. ”

My character Lena is somebody who responds to people in a very simple way. I didn't have to take myself off to a darkened room to concentrate, I just had to try and be open. It's an interesting, subtle relationship. ”

My husband. He keeps me grounded. If I were in the world on my own, it would all be much more seductive. But I'm in a relationship that has nothing to do with the film world. ”

And it is very sexy as well: somebody says I'm taking you on a surprise date, you don't know where you are going and you can't see and then you put your hand out and there is a tiger. Amazing. ”