The voice is always the starting place for me with a character.

If you imagine yourself to be someone who is very uncomfortable in their own skin, then it does funny things to your voice.

For better or worse, I don't necessarily categorize myself as a method actor; I'm not going to make claims that I stayed in character 24/7.

I don't believe that all actors should end up being directors.

You have to start from a place of trying to create a character.

I want to try to make difficult people somehow relatable.

We all relate to having highs and lows. Everyone gets depressed.

There is no way of knowing if a film is going to be good.

I've worked on so many films where the script is one thing and then, somewhere down the line - on set, sometimes - it changes, and there's zero I can do about it.

I don't have regular TV; I have Apple TV, so I pick what I watch, which is perhaps not a good thing. I read all the big publications and also listen to a lot of podcasts.

It's not often you get female characters who don't fit into a box.

Anyone who commits an act of violence to themselves or others is worth consideration in the sense that there must be something that brought them to that point, whether it's a mental health issue or otherwise.

A lot of people go through life trying to perform normalcy, and I think you can relate to that.

I felt very fulfilled after doing 'Vicky Cristina Barcelona' because I'd always wanted to work with Woody Allen. That was like a lifelong dream, and that was thrilling for me, to enter that world.

Nobody engages in a film, regardless of what your job is in it, to make a bad one.

There's so much crap attached to acting: the fame aspect, the ego aspect, the 'Am I good, am I bad, am I being judged, who likes me, who doesn't like me...'

I've just started to get really envious when I go into people's houses and see books on a shelf.

Your principal motive on a movie set is to get the film made, but on a Woody Allen set, there's an ulterior thing that goes on, which is, 'Did you have a conversation with Woody? How friendly have you been with him? Am I liked by him?'

I love clothes. I've never actively followed trends, but I definitely know what I like and what I don't like. I think fashion is a really important and empowering thing. I don't think it's superficial, actually, I think it's very important.

When you work with filmmakers, and it's their first film, there's an exuberance and optimism, which is quite... There's no room for being jaded. Thinking that you know it all.

Shopping is a bit of a relaxing hobby for me, which is sometimes troubling for the bank balance.

One of the great things about the 'Iron Man' franchise is that they employ fascinating actors who don't necessarily do action movies. Before 'Iron Man' you didn't associate Robert Downey, Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow with those kinds of films. There's an emphasis on repartee and wit.

The kind of career that I want is not easy as a lady to manifest, because everyone wants a lady to be likable.

Some people just don't have the tools to deal with the stuff life throws at them.

I'm a very private person. I barely tell my friends what's going on half the time, so the idea that I should then talk to the world about what is going on seems anathema to me. People can say what they want. I'm not going to change anyone's mind.

Whenever I'm in theatre situations I will go out of my way not to talk about my father, but in the film world I can be really proud of my family and say, 'You know what: my dad's a really, really famous theatre director,' because nobody has any idea.

Steven Spielberg was a huge part of my childhood, like everyone's, I guess.

I've always had horrible Valentine's Days.

I grew up watching his movies; I know everyone did, but I really feel that a lot of my formative years were informed by Woody Allen films.

I read everything. I've always got a book on the go and I'm really nerdy about it, I get through books and don't remember anything about them afterwards. But I read all sorts, from classic to contemporary.

I did 'Iron Man' because I was curious about those massive movies that were taking over the summers every year, and I wanted to see what the fuss was about.

No family is sane, is it?

I don't know how you make a living without a few personal compromises.

There are people all over the world who like to write fan letters in the voice of their pet: 'Hello, my name is Fifi and I'm a labrador and I think you're great. Paw paw!'

I was the kid that grew up watching Bette Davis films.

Even if the film doesn't come out quite as you'd hoped, the process can also be very rewarding. I feel that way about a film called 'Lay the Favorite' that I made with Stephen Frears. I did that because the character was a real leap for me. The film doesn't quite all add up internally, but I feel very proud of what I did on it.

This is how much of a music geek I am: if I have a day with nothing to do, one of my favourite things is to just sit at my computer and make playlists of pretty much anything.

I don't think that theater is the higher medium, that it's better than film.

I used to have the most visceral response to having my photo taken. I felt like instantly bursting into tears and running out of the room. I hated all the attention, which is such a stupid thing for an actor to say.

Directors assume I'm, like, establishment.

I'm a bit nerdy about accents. I love it.

I don't think it's helpful to put them all in a box and say people are evil and freaks because they have gotten to the point where they have fallen out of the community of what it is to be a human being. That's worthy of investigation.

If I sat around thinking about acting all day, I'd lose my mind.

I don't think I can boast about him. 'Hey, my dad is a British institution; he's done all these incredible things and I'm really proud of him.' There is a certain baggage that comes with that in England.

I've been listening to 'Chapo Trap House' - they're quite radical. Every time I listen to it, my brain feels opened up.

When I was 22, I thought I couldn't wear heels because of my height.

I was a sort of New York intellectual when I was 16. I wanted to dress like Annie Hall when I was 18.

I was quite quiet as a kid. I sat around watching people.

It's not like I particularly have an interest in creepiness for creepy's sake.

You sit there, and you argue and you argue, and you sort of bully the hell out of the text until you're quite sure what it's revealing, and then you perform it.