Lena Headey

“I have an internal protectiveness where it's like, if it comes to just me, as frightened as I am of losing someone I love or things going sour or simply being alone, there is a dark place in my brain where I'm like, It could happen and I'm okay, I'm prepared.”

“I think I cry when I'm angry. I let it go that way.”

“I don't want to be owned by anyone.”

“I took up boxing as a fitness thing. I got obsessed, and I would go every day when I wasn't working. It's just an insane sport when you get into it.”

“I'm dreadful at schmoozing at Hollywood parties.”

“I hate being looked at. Can't stand it. I know, I know - I picked the wrong career. I should have been a doctor. If you play certain parts you have this nice face painted on you, and then you have feel as if you have a responsibility to this idea of being beautiful. I hate that about our business.”

“I would love to work with Shane Meadows - great director.”

“Some 'Terminator' fans are outraged that I'm playing Sarah Connor. They think I'm not muscly enough. To be honest, I'm a little tired of the comparisons to Linda Hamilton. I know she will always be the original Sarah Connor, but when people see what I bring to the role, they will look at her with new eyes.”

“I'd love to have played Joan of Arc. That would have been amazing.”

“Getting older and having kids, you learn how to become less serious about it all.”

“I've never directed before, so I need to make sure that people know that I can. The movie that I've written, 'The Sophisticates,' is a... small ensemble comedy and I hope it's charming and funny.”

“I've got quite a big gay following. I played a lesbian prostitute in the TV series 'Band Of Gold' but I think my following really grew when I played one in the film 'Imagine Me & You,' with Piper Perabo.”

“I'm sort of like a T. rex in the world of female actresses. Every time a job is finished, I look at my car and think, 'Could I live in it?'”

“As a teenager I was clinically depressed. Although I had lots of friends, I found those years very difficult.”

“There seems to be great roles for women, and it's not necessarily - you don't have to be young women. Suddenly, we're realizing that, generally, women are interesting, and they can also be weird and crazy and mean.”

“With fantasy and sci-fi, it's based in a real fandom. You're presenting to experts, and their source material is really important to them. They'll come up and ask: 'so when you turned your head slightly in that scene, what were you thinking?'”

“I like to keep my personal life private.”

“I always have scarves handy; they're my indulgence. I buy them at an L.A. shop called Lost & Found. I'll spray one with loads of my Byredo Gypsy Water perfume, put it on and be like, 'Ah, this feels good.'”

“Since being quite young, I've had a very strong sense of independence and survival. As a child, I was on my own two feet emotionally.”

“I'd like to play Walter White, but I guess that's been done.”