I`ve realized that in all the great stories, even if there`s a happily-ever-after ending, there`s something sad.
The first time I was nominated, I didn`t know anything about the Oscars. That was almost 15 years ago. I just did Oscar week and enjoyed it very much because I was with my mum. Even so, each time it`s happened I`ve come down with some ghastly infection. It is overwhelming for people. It has nothing to do really at all with your performance. It comes down to if you get an Oscar for your film, then the revenue for your film goes up. They mean a great deal. I can`t deny it.
Children are much more understanding of the suddenness and arbitrariness of death than we are. The old fairy tales contain a lot of that, and we`ve stolen from them, just as they stole from Greek myth, which has that same mixture of pre-Christian chaos.
Acting simply cannot be about how you look. It would be very difficult to make a film where you have to be beautiful in every shot. You have to put so much effort into it; you have to hold your head at particular angles, put the light in a certain way and I don`t like acting like that. I like to act unconscious of how I look.
`My appearance has changed a lot over the years, but it has far more to do with how I feel about being a woman. I`ve never thought of myself as vain. When I was at Cambridge, I shaved my head and wore baggy clothes. What I did was to desexualise myself. It was partly to do with the feminism of that time: militant and grungy. That`s all changed now, though I don`t think it is liberating to get your tits out. I don`t hold with that. But I am much more comfortable with being a woman now than I was in my twenties.
(on her role in the Harry Potter film) I have a nervous breakdown in the film and in one scene I get to stand at the top of the stairs waving an empty sherry bottle which is, of course, a typical scene from my daily life, so isn`t much of a stretch.
I can`t stand this new culture of the instant disposable celebrity. It`s all so vulgar.
But when I lose my temper, I find it difficult to forgive myself. I feel I`ve failed. I can be calm in a crisis, in the face of death or things that hurt badly. I don`t get hysterical, which may be masochistic of me. But in small matters, I am not calm at all. My worst quality is impatience.
Liam Neeson, quite frankly, is sex on legs. Always has been.
I mind having to look pretty, that`s what I mind, because it is so much more of an effort.
I have periods of intense activity, then stop. My ideal is to work hard in the morning until I pick Gaia up from school. Just putting an empty square in my diary seems to make a space in my head, too. You have to be very good at saying no.
I am who I am and there is nothing I can do about that.
What was important was trying to create something that families could watch together and enjoy together.
We need men and women to sit down and talk to each other about sex honestly and openly. That would help us fight Aids so immediately. But our lack of communication is hugely problematic.
We belabour, I think, under a very heavy crust of consumerism really.
The way, I think, anything has ever really changed on this planet is through large groups of very ordinary people saying something finally.
The trouble is it`s very difficult to pin-point the most important thing because Aids affects everyone in different levels of society, differently and you have to respond to it differently.
The fact is that young people are going to have sex whether you like it or not.
The Catholic Church - it`s so difficult because I don`t want say anything offensive but it makes me very angry that religious leaders from this faith have tried to respond negatively to sexual education and to the promotion of condom use.
Tell him I mind having to look pretty, that`s what I mind, because it is so much more of an effort.
Its unfortunate and I really wish I wouldn`t have to say this, but I really like human beings who have suffered. They`re kinder.
It is remarkable how many misconceptions there are here about life in the developing world and I think that that knowledge gap has done a lot to contribute to the imbalance quite frankly.
Indeed - judicious, consistent parenting is a dream of mine. No judgements, learning space and listening carefully are my goals.
If you`ve got to my age, you`ve probably had your heart broken many times. So it`s not that difficult to unpack a bit of grief from some little corner of your heart and cry over it.
If you don`t want women to do whatever they need to do then you must provide them with food, you must provide them with shelter and their basic human rights.
I`ve a problem with the word charity because I think that NGOs, as I prefer calling them, really do take the work of moral and social responsibilities that ought to be taken on by governments.
I think the point about ActionAid is what it`s asking people to do is engage with poor people in developing countries and understand what their lives are like and understand how the way we live our lives impacts on theirs.
I think that my work is my attempt, I suppose, is to try and become a piece of connective tissue. I`m trying to communicate with people here and in America - in rich countries - about what I see on the ground in badly affected areas.
I have had lots of friends who`ve been affected by Aids and a very good friend of mine, Oscar Moore, died of Aids and I was with him in his last year quite a bit. And of course he was a man living in a very rich culture with a wealthy family who was able to afford health care.
I don`t think people understand that being poor means you have to work from dawn until dusk just to survive through the day. I think there`s some notion that poor people lie about all day not doing anything.
I don`t have technique because I never learnt any.
Children don`t need much advice but they really do need to be listened to and not just with half an ear.
Children are the most wonderful audiences. What`s struck me most is that that they watch it so silently, until the end when they shriek and shout and clap.
But certainly in Uganda, Mozambique and South Africa, people don`t really talk about sex and certainly religious leaders - some of them - up to now have been very unwilling to accept, for instance, the promotion of condom use.
Any problem, big or small, within a family, always seems to start with bad communication. Someone isn`t listening.
A lot of people in my world - in the acting world - have either lost friends to Aids or live with HIV because its origin in our culture, in New York for instance, was in the gay community.
And it`s absolutely true that male sexual behaviour and female responses to male demands change a lot when they start communicating - and the levels of the communication that I`ve seen on the ground in very, very poor areas are so high and I think why don`t we have that here? |
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