Olivia Colman

“I feel fortunate that I'm not a beauty. I'm not a classic beauty. I feel it is harder for girls who are like that. There are fewer parts.”

“I'm always keen to have more training as a charity patron.”

“I am a bit sickie happy. I am prone to black clouds too, but... I am embarrassed about them. It's like: 'My diamond shoes are too tight. My money clip doesn't fit all my fifties.' I mean - really. Shut up.”

“I don't like the bullying, do-one-over style of comedy. It's so cheap.”

“The first time I did a school play was the first time I felt I was good at anything at all. I just loved it.”

“Dementia is such a terrifying thing for all of us, and we are particularly bad at coping with old people in this country.”

“Acting is playing, and it is like being a big kid. Yeah, it's great. You get paid.”

“I've always wanted to play a Marvel baddie. I'm not sure I fit the mold, though. Like a powerful, extraordinary woman. Somebody with superpowers would be really fun, but I'm not sure how many middle-aged women they have in Marvel.”

“I suppose I have played a lot of put-upon women, but it's never bothered me. They've never been weak - they've always got steel in them.”

“In fact I was slightly badly behaved at school and got in trouble. I would get a bee in my bonnet about something I thought wasn't right, and I would ape about too, to make everybody laugh. That was my way through my girls' school, because I wasn't very academic.”

“I grew up in north Norfolk, which certainly used to have an enormous sense of community. There are more and more second homes there now, so I'm not sure how that has damaged it. But where I live in South London, there is a beautiful community; it's the friendliest place I have ever lived, which comes as a surprise to non-Londoners.”

“I started off in comedy, but that's just where I got my work. I've always been an actor.”

“I love my job and I know I am very lucky but still, if you audition and you don't get it, it still affects you.”

“I want everyone to know what they deserve in relationships: that they can demand equality and kindness. Because everyone will have a relationship at some point in their life. It's what we all do, every day, and we need to know how to do it.”

“I've been working a long time; it was a slow burn. But I'm grateful it's been like that.”

“As a child, I thought, 'Once I am a grown-up, there will be no more fear, no more worries,' and it turns out that's not true.”

“I have done Botox, and I loved it.”

“If a script is good, you are 10 steps into the part just reading it. But my choices are not all down to my taste. It is about people you have worked with before.”

“I was always pretty ambitious, although it probably helps that I can't do anything else - apart from cleaning lavatories. But I remember my mum once said, 'I suppose you'll give it a year and see if you can make it as an actress?' And I said, 'No Mum, I think I'll give it 10.'”

“I do sometimes wonder if people think, 'Oh we'll have her because she cries well.' The odd thing is I don't really know where it comes from. If the script is good, I find I can usually cry without too much trouble - in fact, the hard thing is trying to get me to stop. But I'm not really a crier in real life. I'm not a dramatic person, you see.”