Rachael Stirling

“She was just Ma, and I didn't grow up in some kind of acting dynasty: Orson Welles didn't come round and give me a piggyback; Vivien Leigh never read me a bedtime story. It was just my mum and our housekeeper, whom I adored, and after that, it was boarding school.”

“I always like a character who makes me laugh.”

“I feel sexier in my 40s than I did in my 20s and 30s.”

“I panicked in my 20s and 30s about whether I was doing the right thing. I was an excited puppy, wanting to please people and feeling guilty that I'd had a privileged education and an acting career.”

“I think if I'd been born ten years earlier when Ma was at the height of 'Avengers' fame, it would have been a different kettle of fish altogether, but she was very much a ma first and an actress second for my formative years.”

“I want to see craggy old faces on the telly. I find them infinitely more fascinating than pretty young ones.”

“Kristin Scott Thomas is terrific. She has a career in France and a career in England: how cool is that? I wouldn't mind that.”

“My mum is still totally rocking it. She's appearing in 'Game of Thrones,' which is massively cool.”

“I was raised to please people in authority, and I'd also come from a sheltered boarding school, so I was very naive and young for my years.”

“I love growing older. Normally, I don't bother with make-up. This face in the mirror is changing. I've got new lines from smiling at the sprog so much.”

“If you get asked to play a part that makes you feel frightened, then you have to do it. 'Medea' is the opportunity of a lifetime.”

“'Ambitious' is seen as a dirty word, especially when it comes to women. But what being ambitious actually means is to achieve distinction in your chosen field.”

“I really resent how expensive everything is in London.”

“I do panic when I'm out of work, and there have been long periods of that. And I'm not a good auditionee. I talk myself out of jobs in front of the director and suggest other people who would be better.”

“I did ballet as a child and started again seven years ago. I love that you hear this exquisite music, and for a moment, you feel like a thing of beauty; it's changed my awareness of my body.”

“There is a sense of shame that comes with unemployment. I didn't become a movie star, and I was a size 14.”

“I woke up famous for about a minute, then stopped being famous again.”

“In my bones, I feel like a Scot. I always have. My mum's from Doncaster, so whatever that is as a combination of Scotland and Yorkshire. It isn't southern.”

“I won't change the way I talk for anyone. I'll do it for work but not because I think someone will like me more if I take the edge off.”

“The tabloids had a field day with 'Tipping The Velvet,' which was great for the viewing figures but not necessarily for the actors involved.”