It was hysterical. We wanted to make it naughty and fun. When the camera stopped rolling, it was hard to stop laughing. - about her love scene with Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible II (2000).

I use the film industry as a pleasure for work and that kind of thing and it's not a pursuit to make me feel happy in my life.

Having children is life-changing, to state the obvious. It's a gigantic shift in your life and I welcomed it. Not to put too fine a point on it, there's something about the shame that goes with sexual exploitation, deviance, whatever. As a woman, having a baby psychologically erases it all from your body. And that, for me, was incredibly important.

I don't put the pressure on myself to be a very successful movie star. I want to enjoy being an actor and I want to be challenged by the roles I take. What is lovely is that I'll get sent a small movie, and you know that by virtue of me being involved they get their money and that's fantastic.

God, yeah, I'm good at playing the emotionally strangled person. The woman who is in the worst place in her life. That's me!

Ten years ago, I probably would have bemoaned the fact that I started out [in the film business] so young - but now I'm grateful - truly grateful. [September 2008]

When I am out and about I feel watched. It's become second nature. The only time I get to be private is in my work. That is when I liberate the ego. The blessed-out sensation of liberating the ego.