Quotes from Janet McTeer

I did 'Tumbleweeds' for fun. I did it because I loved it and I hardly even got paid.

I was incredibly self-conscious about the way I looked.

It's naive to think there is a woman in the world who isn't brought up to believe that they are waiting for their soul mate. You even see it in Disney.

When you're a young English person who wants to be an actress and you have dreams, you dream of being Vanessa Redgrave or Judi Dench.

I'd rather lose large than win slightly. I think life is an oil painting, not a watercolor.

I find strong roles really interesting. Usually, that means the character is also clever.

British independent television is exactly the same as independent cinema. Very low budget, interesting, cutting edge stuff.

I suppose that there might have been leading men who were put off from casting me as the ingenue because I was taller than they were, but I've no idea that this ever happened. When I did 'Much Ado About Nothing' opposite Mark Rylance in the West End, we used the difference in our heights as part of their relationship.

When you are old enough to... play powerful parts, who cares if you are 45, 55 or 65?

But then I got a job selling coffee at the York Theatre, and when I met theatre people, something clicked. I felt comfortable with them; I felt like myself. I decided to go to drama school based just on that feeling. I had never done any acting.

I've always thought it's the qualities of a person that matter. Not their breed, their shape, their color, their sexual preference, age... It's the qualities of their character.

I have very girly hands and I use them a lot when I talk in a way that I think is very feminine.

The older you get, the better you get, because you've seen more. You don't necessarily have to go through a lot, but you have to witness it in order to recreate it.

When you're an actor, you get your ideas from everywhere - even from someone on the street. We're total thieves!

I'd love to play Hamlet.

There's a reason I live in the Maine woods, where nobody knows what I do for a living. I think you can be better if someone who's coming to see you perform has no idea who you really are.

I do mostly British projects, and for family reasons and life reasons Britain's my home, where I have a lovely garden.

My mother and father are still together after forty something years. I lived in one place till I was 6. I lived in another place from when I was 6 till I was 17.

In my heart of hearts, I love theatre. It's the joy and terror of putting a play on, the creativity of it. It is infinitely harder than film and television and more tiring. Your performance is heightened in the way it isn't with film.

I would often go on as myself, when I wasn't working. And the first time I went on as myself, two people came up and asked me what I was doing and who I was.

I'm always amazed when anybody remembers anything of my work, and even more so when I get nominated for something I've done. For many years, I was like a horse wearing a pair of blinkers as far as using these awards or nominations in order to boost my career was concerned.

It's hard to learn an American accent. Some of the Rs at the ends of words are incredibly hard.

When you create a character, you create it for yourself - you do whatever you want. It's your job to explore it in as many different avenues as you can in order to make it a fully wounded character.

I have always been drawn to strong and interesting women, people who have navigated that world before you and maintained their integrity and sense of self.