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By winning the Oscar for her portrayal of Katharine Hepburn, she became the first person to give an Oscar-winning portrayal of a previous Oscar winner.

After completing work on the Lord of the Rings trilogy in the role of Galadriel, she kept and bronzed her elf ear prosthetics.

In an interview she gave to Fox Television Network, she admitted blushingly that she had accepted the role of Galadriel, the Elf Queen, in the Lord of the Rings trilogy because she always wanted to appear in a movie wearing pointed ears.

Is only the sixth actress to win both leading and supporting actress Oscars. The other five are Maggie Smith, Meryl Streep, Jessica Lange, Helen Hayes and Ingrid Bergman.

Holds the record as the only Australian actress to win two Academy Awards.

If you know you are going to fail, then fail gloriously!

[When asked what colour her hair is] Look, it's one of the great mysteries of the world, I cannot answer that question. I think I'm vaguely blonde. To be perfectly frank, I don't know.

[When asked if she has ever appeared in Neighbours (1985)] Absolutely not. I'm an actress.

[on the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy] I had never done anything with blue screen before, or prosthetics, or anything like that. Lord of the Rings was like stepping into a videogame for me. It was another world completely. But, to be honest, I basically did it so that I could have the ears. I thought they would really work with my bare head.

If I had my way, if I was lucky enough, if I could be on the brink my entire life - that great sense of expectation and excitement without the disappointment - that would be the perfect state.