Quotes from Lena Headey

I'm 40 next year and I'm very well aware that where I am now, it becomes a bit of a wilderness for actresses.

I look at someone like Kathryn Bigelow, and I have so much admiration. She's playing in the boy's sandpit, and winning.

I enjoy what I do and it's a great way to live your life.

Getting older and having kids, you learn how to become less serious about it all.

Getting the role in '300' saved me. I'd been out of work for 11 months after 'The Brothers Grimm.' Once the film came out and didn't do so well, the director Terry Gilliam blamed me for absolutely everything. It was pretty appalling, and I had started to wonder if I'd ever get another job again when I was asked to audition for '300.'

I've said from day one that I've got no problem with nudity. I've done it throughout my career.

I'm sort of like a T. rex in the world of female actresses. Every time a job is finished, I look at my car and think, 'Could I live in it?

I almost never get recognised in the street.

I could quite happily run a florist or a bake shop.

I worked in Tesco's staff canteen because I fancied a boy on the tills. I served him his lunch in a hairnet and tan tights. Not just that, of course - I had a lovely white onesie.

There is something in the act of having tattoos done that I love. It can be quite addictive. I've got a few on my back because my friend is an artist, and a few on my arms. Every time I pass a tattoo parlour, I think, 'Maybe just a tiny one.'

Some 'Terminator' fans are outraged that I'm playing Sarah Connor. They think I'm not muscly enough. To be honest, I'm a little tired of the comparisons to Linda Hamilton. I know she will always be the original Sarah Connor, but when people see what I bring to the role, they will look at her with new eyes.

Shooting guns is not something I would do in my spare time.

I find 'Chainsaw' to be a very relaxing film.

For me, horror movies are a real escape.

I'm a tomboy. I used to get into a lot of fights. Don't know why - self-expression, I guess.

I took up boxing as a fitness thing. I got obsessed, and I would go every day when I wasn't working. It's just an insane sport when you get into it.

I love being physical, but I am extreme either way. I can be superfit. And then I can be really lazy and ignore everything.

I love the chance to train with someone like Mark Twight.

One day I was in school, and the next I was acting opposite Jeremy Irons. That's how quickly it happened. I was in class and then working with Sir Anthony Hopkins.

The more you love something, the worse you tend to audition. If you don't really care about something, you kind of nail it.

It's a feeling without a lid, of what you would do, physically, verbally, to protect the one thing that is your greatest love.

I'd love to have played Joan of Arc. That would have been amazing.

I think I look slightly like a horse. Hand on heart, I think I'm pretty average.