Sophie Rundle

“I think that we're starting to allow ourselves to imagine that gender doesn't have to be binary, sexuality doesn't have to be binary, and you are allowed to choose who you love, how you behave, and how you dress.”

“I think I just have one of those faces that can look like lots of different people.”

“The 'Jamestown' set was so convincing. It had been raining for a few days before we started filming, and when we turned up, we were knee-high in mud. There were pigs and goats everywhere, too, which meant the whole place smelled pretty ripe. It definitely helped us enter the 'Jamestown' world immediately.”

“So often, when you're an actor, you're told what to do and what to say and what to wear. Your opinion is, at best, tolerated and, at worst, not wanted.”

“I think, in a comedy, it's easy to play people as very two-dimensional. But what is enjoyable to watch is seeing a more fully rounded person.”

“I get embarrassed saying what I do. If you're chatting to a cabbie, and they don't know you're an actor, I cringe because it's always coupled with the inevitable, 'So, what have I seen you in?' And you're left reciting your CV.”

“It's the reason I love doing TV - revisiting stories and characters and the length of the story arcs.”

“If we don't start representing women properly on screen now, we're never going to change our opinion of them as a society.”

“I haven't just been swanning around Hollywood, you know.”

“I'm always going to be an actor first and foremost, but I certainly want to have a voice in the kind of work that I'm doing.”

“I'm fascinated by delving into the historical context of what life was like in the past.”

“I want to be old Princess Margaret, without a doubt. Kaftan wearing, Caribbean island-dwelling... that's my inner spirit animal.”

“I've done shows before where it's supposed to be about the women, and then it quickly turns out it isn't.”

“In a drama, you generally have to be very faithful to the script and the storyline, and it all has to fit together, and it's weighty and serious.”

“I love a period drama - the theatricality of going into work and having that distance between yourself and the character you're playing.”

“We don't see a lot of LGBTQ representation in period dramas because there was so much shame around it at the time. The stories that we tell about that time don't tend to focus explicitly on those sorts of characters, which is nonsense because they existed.”

“All Anne Lister wanted was a wife, and the other liaisons couldn't commit, but Ann Walker did. She took sacrament with her, and they became wife and wife. That shows extraordinary strength.”

“I trained at RADA, then went into the theatre, but TV is like starting at the bottom again. I have just been learning.”

“Filming 'Jamestown' in Budapest for six months felt like summer camp. There was a lovely cast of 16 actors, and we got along so well.”

“I'm fascinated by female relationships.”