Part of what I enjoy about the theatre and acting is that sense of history.
I loved theatre and film when I was growing up in Harpenden, Hertfordshire. My mum's a reflexologist and my dad's a corporate financier.
I knew 'Be Our Guest' would be performed on a set and in costume, but anyone with a history in Theatre In Education will know that can mean anything.
Even if the play is great, every day in theatre you have to question everything because the audience is new every day. I love that.
The great lesson in theatre is that you live the story every night, and that is a wonderful vehicle for getting to the richest places in a performance or investing a character with the richest life.
I always had a good time in theatre, even when shows don't turn out as well as I'd like.
I think the only directing I'd be any good at is theatre directing. It's the only thing I can see myself doing.
What interests me about life most is people, and the why of the world. That's what theatre looks at: it examines life, and gives it a cohesiveness that life doesn't have.
Cinema and, most of all, films have changed my life much more than theatre or television. And that is the reason why I'm an actress.
I love theatre because it's just me and the audience. It's the litmus test in acting, to be able to sustain a performance over one, two or three hours.
Family is the theatre of the spiritual drama, the place where things happen, especially the things that matter.
I started doing community theatre as a way to make friends, and that was when I caught the acting bug.
I find the theatre faintly embarrassing for the actors performing on stage. It seems rather showy-off in an undignified way.
When you come out of the theatre and you don't even talk about that film or remember it, then it disappoints me.
I worked in rep for six years, then I came to London and to the National Theatre. What's better than that?
Theatre director: a person engaged by the management to conceal the fact that the players cannot act.
Then I went off to Southern Methodist University in Dallas. They had a really wonderful theatre department.
I think in the old days, everybody used to act really quickly because Hollywood was built by theatre people.
I coach young people. I have a group called BTP - Broadway Theatre Project.
I used to say that theatre was my favourite thing. But the more I do film, the more I appreciate it.
Theatre is really difficult, so it's important that you have a director that kind of understands that and is really hands on.
