Ashley Jensen

“I always felt slightly grubbier than most American people.”

“I take my hat off to mums who have lots of kids. Anyone that says being a mum isn't a full-time job has obviously never had any.”

“My husband is always telling me: 'We're on holiday - we don't need to have an itinerary!' But I always want to see as much as I can. Sometimes, I come back from holiday needing a holiday.”

“I think because I did become a well-known face in my thirties and not in my twenties, I was pretty settled in my boots and I knew who I was. And I think there's a sort of Scottish thing, too, where you don't take yourself too seriously, and you don't get carried away with your own sense of self-importance.”

“In a world of iPads and emails, nothing has really changed in the theatre. You still get in an hour early, do your wardrobe, put an old pair of tights under your wig, and you have, 'This is your call, Miss Jensen'. I got exhilarated by that.”

“I think it's strange when people my age and younger get surgery. Somebody's got to play old people.”

“It means I wake up to sunshine every morning, and I can afford to drink better wine at night. But I haven't completely sold out to Hollywood.”

“I've always been quite thrifty. I can't bear to spend hundreds of pounds on designer clothes. I shop in second-hand shops in Portobello Road and go to Sue Ryder.”

“My mum Margaret was a single parent, but though life was a bit of a struggle she gave me every encouragement.”

“I'm not a big one for sitting by the pool doing nothing.”

“I always knew I wanted to be an actor, certainly from the age of eight or nine. I think when you know what you want to do, you're very lucky because you've got a focus.”

“I just wanted to be an actress. It never occurred to me that I could become famous, because I'm not one of those people who's automatically going to be the lead. I always saw myself as the mate.”

“I do quite like sightseeing. I like churches, museums, galleries and all that stuff. I love the smell of a church in Italy or the smell of an old greasy spoon somewhere. I like markets and little funny shops in the backstreets of Florence.”

“Everything has happened so fast for me that I sometimes can't take it all in. I'm a huge 'Friends' fan, and meeting Matthew Perry in L.A., where he was as keen to talk to me about 'Extras' as I was to him about 'Friends,' was amazing.”

“As a child, I always chose a false nose and some face paint and a wig for my birthday.”

“I still giggle when someone asks for my address and I say, 'Hollywood, Los Angeles.'”

“I always felt slightly grubbier than most American people. I was never quite as groomed as everyone else, never quite as fit as anyone else. I didn't have my protein shake and my vitamins.”

“I don't even think places like the National Youth Theatre (NYT) are necessarily about wanting to be an actor when you grow up. They're about meeting people from different backgrounds and different religions and different cultures, and mixing with people that you wouldn't ordinarily meet.”

“There's just no place like Scotland when the sun is out. I just love coming home.”

“I wanted to live where I could pop to the bar that Humphrey Bogart took Lauren Bacall to, or the little restaurant where Charlie Chaplin had a booth.”