Florence Pugh

“I played Mary at the age of seven in my first nativity play, and I loved it - there is something so fascinating about embodying someone else.”

“Do we need to have a female Bond? Couldn't we just make something new?”

“I have learned how to wrestle. You end up battered and blue - but so happy.”

“I grew up in a very loud family where you had to fight to get your voice heard, in a good way.”

“'The Falling' was a big, flashy, bizarre experience. I kept on saying at the time it was a fluke because I did the audition, and I didn't think anything would come of it.”

“I love Le Carre's writing.”

“Why shouldn't there be more epic, brilliant female characters onscreen?”

“That, for me, actually is the most important thing about doing a period film is trying to make these people as lovable as they are back then.”

“I was acting with all my childhood heroes: Meryl Streep, Saoirse Ronan, all of those amazing women.”

“I think everyone's always interested in playing a spy, right? That's something we grow up admiring, which is so strange, but it's just a very clever and quick world that we all want to be a part of.”

“Playing Paige, I felt I had to train to wrestle.”

“Wearing a corset is extremely uncomfortable.”

“I found out I got 'The Little Drummer Girl' and my BAFTA nomination in quick succession, and I just didn't expect it to be like that. I thought there would be a lot more time in between. It's been an overwhelming experience.”

“What I've noticed about Hollywood is, if you go out there shouting about who you are, they will love you for it. But if you go out not knowing what it is that you're representing, and you are just a canvas, they will make you into the thing they need you to be.”

“I have been enormously lucky. My first role was in a great film by a woman director.”

“Feisty women are my calling!”

“I remember being about six years old, for the first day of school, and sitting in the back of a Chrysler, pretending to cry while listening to Tracy Chapman.”

“What's important is to listen before you react.”

“There's a reason why there's a problem with bodies, and it's because you never actually get to see any normal versions of them.”

“The biggest thing about 'Lady Macbeth' is the fact that people are so surprised that this woman is so amazing, and really, it shouldn't be so amazing that this incredible character is on our screens.”