Biografia

Met ex-husband James McAvoy while filming Shameless (2004).

Almost turned down her role in Shameless (2004). However, her mother changed her mind, saying that the script rang true because "it is about what people have when they don't have anything except laughter, sex and the stars".

Gave birth to her first child at age 39, a son Brendan Duff McAvoy on 26 February 2010 at St Mary's Hospital, Praed Street, Westminster. The child's father is her husband (now ex-husband), James McAvoy.

She was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Theatre Award in 2000 (1999 season) for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in "Collected Stories" at the Haymarket Theatre.

Duff said her son is named after her dad Brendan, a painter and decorator who moved to Britain with his wife Mary from Ireland. She and her husband James McAvoy chose not to know the sex of the baby before his birth in London in 2010.

In theatre, there's the director, the writer, and below them the actor. In film, it's the actors who are most important. That goes against the grain for me. It's been amazing for me to see the self-confidence of actors who insist on having control, because it's going to be their faces 20ft high in the posters. I've been shocked by film actors - 25 and under - having such confidence and cockiness to rewrite a scene. My background is more about the director being in control. It's all about yielding. It's an oddly submissive relationship in which you're moulded, Pygmalion-style.

I don't tend to get asked to do the same thing. I thought after I played Fiona [in Shameless (2004)], "Here we go..." But it's like a fruit machine, I never know what's going to come out.

[on being shy] If you'd asked me to talk to a boy I'd have shat myself. Boys, friends, I didn't have any of that.

[on her time at the Drama Centre in north London] I lost my virginity. I fell in love. I thought, "This is great. It fits."

[on the disciplined atmosphere at the Drama Centre] There were all these rules you had to obey, often for intangible reasons. I was always receiving these letters saying that if I didn't get my s--- together I'd be out. We used to call Central [School of Arts and Drama] Butlin's and they used to call us "the Trauma Centre". It was very tough on women.