It’s an incredible privilege for an actor to look into the camera. It’s like looking right into the heart of the film, and you can’t take that lightly.
You have to play the logic of a character.
Yeah, a lot of people think I’ll be a tortured nutcase when they meet me.
When the time came to make a decision about what do in life, I found myself thinking that acting was the thing I loved to do, so I applied to drama school. And then, I didn’t get in – twice.
When I did get home this last time, we had all these plans to go out. And then we hardly stepped outside because the time together seemed too precious.
The film Punch – Drunk Love is how you see the world when you’re in love. You don’t see somebody’s psychological baggage necessarily, you see the person walking out of the light.
My character Lena is somebody who responds to people in a very simple way. I didn’t have to take myself off to a darkened room to concentrate, I just had to try and be open. It’s an interesting, subtle relationship.
It’s a whole different kind of anxiety. But the great thing about doing a theatre job is that once the ball starts rolling you just have to go with it, it’s inexorable.
I’ve always been creative, I think.
And it is very sexy as well: somebody says I’m taking you on a surprise date, you don’t know where you are going and you can’t see and then you put your hand out and there is a tiger. Amazing.
I think so, Silence of the Lambs was a great, suspenseful thriller and I would expect Red Dragon to be similar. And I think it’s very character driven.
I grew up without a television. It meant that I read lots of books and entertained myself.
I don’t think I will be less good because there’s less pressure on me.
I do think you feel a little bit like you are preying on people’s lives.
I always think I am going to do my best.
During Breaking The Waves, I was on my own in a hotel room. I think I would have been impossible to live with. When you go home, you have to pretend to be the person you are at home.
As actors, we went where we wanted to, and the camera followed us: it was like having another person in the room. There was no formal structure to the process. It was very liberating.
I was a normal, rather dutiful child. I didn’t even rebel as a teenager.
My husband. He keeps me grounded. If I were in the world on my own, it would all be much more seductive. But I’m in a relationship that has nothing to do with the film world.
My friends are all really nice about my fame, they’re just curious really, they ask lots of questions.
If anyone else played Hermione, it would actually kill me.
I think when you take away all, like, the premieres and press stuff and all the special effects, then you just come down to the fact that it’s all about acting, and I think that has been the best bit for me.
I really love animals and enjoy working with them.
I feel like a voodoo doll. It’s grim. It’s gross.
Hermione uses all these big long tongue twister words. I don’t know what she’s going on about half the time!