Biografía

Turned down a recurring role in Mujeres desesperadas (2004).

She was awarded the Laurence Olivier Theatre Award in 1991 (1990 season) for Best Actress in a Musical for "Into the Woods".

Won the Olivier Award as Best Actress in a Musical for her performance in "Sweeney Todd" (2013).

She said that her idols are Bette Davis, Vivien Leigh and Maya Angelou.

She was nominated for the 1997 Laurence Olivier Theatre Award for Best Actress in a Musical of the 1996 season for her performance in "Guys and Dolls".

I go up for a job, someone else gets it, what can I do about that? That might be in another league to me, people being competitive. But it's not like running a race. I'm not against anyone. I think that's a much more American thing, that.

We're all unique as actors. To yourself, you are unique, you have to think, "I'm me, I'm not going to bunch myself with other people". Agents and producers have to get you into a box, to accommodate their limited imaginations.

[on working with Mike Leigh in El secreto de Vera Drake (2004)] He's the nicest . . . because he works so hard, and I think he expects other people to work hard. And in my book, that's enough. We don't roll into rehearsal at 10:30 and have coffee. We start at 8:00 a.m., we finish at 8 o'clock at night. I mean, you don't want to dither around him. And I think that's fine. I think he's entitled to say what he wants and what he doesn't want. He knows a lot about it. He doesn't have to be nice if he doesn't want to, just to be charming.

Well, my parents were working people. You just worked. I've always wanted a long career, not an instant one. I left RADA [Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts], I worked in rep for six years, then I came to London and came to the National Theatre. What's better than that? I don't know what's better than that. "Oh, but surely you wanted to be a big film star when you were 21?" No, because I would've been rubbish. Because I spent a lot of time in rep being OK, being very bad, and then being quite good. And I could practice my craft. You know, being exposed that early, to be brilliant in your first job, where do you go from there? It's given me time, which is a luxury.

[on her view about abortion, something she's been asked a lot after her role in El secreto de Vera Drake (2004)] I'm not Susan Sarandon. I don't want to bang a drum. I think I'm just going to say, "I'm pro-choice" and leave it at that.