ANNA CHANCELLOR

When people said schooldays were the best days of your life, I remember thinking: 'Tell me it's not true. This cannot be it.' I don't think my life has ever been that bad again. It hasn't always been easy but at least I have been free.

I'm crazy about ducks and swans and geese, so I don't eat foie gras. I try to eat organic.

I went for endless auditions for tiny parts in obscure plays, and never got one job until I was in 'Four Weddings'.

Don't believe everything you think - or feel.

There's a certain amount of self-aggrandising with actors, and I'm terribly shy of that.

I'm not crazy about oysters and offal and brains and stuff like that. It's vegetables that I really like. I worked in the River Cafe restaurant when it first opened, and I used to eat the leftover vegetables on the plates. They were so delicious.

I find running life quite hard, and I like sharing that. Obviously, the companionship, being loved and loving, is fantastic. But I don't feel that I couldn't live without a boyfriend or lover or husband.

I was one of those lucky people with only one talent. It is harder for people with many talents to decide what to do.

If I had married someone wealthy when I was young, I would have sunk like a stone. Being skint makes life quite clear. You've got to take that job.

I was brought up with two sisters, so I do know about a three-way dynamic. It's a complex one, because it's easy for one to get left out and the others to gang up. In my family, we were all pretty up for it, but the dynamics would constantly change.

If I had married someone wealthy when I was young, I would have sunk like a stone. Being skint makes life quite clear. You've got to take that job.

I should brush my hair more.

I find running life quite hard, and I like sharing that. Obviously, the companionship, being loved and loving, is fantastic. But I don't feel that I couldn't live without a boyfriend or lover or husband.

I'm always crying. I get a lump in my throat when I see intimacy between parents and their children.

My parents had four children quickly, divorced quickly - when I was two - and my mother remarried quickly. We were suddenly in a different environment with a different father.

I was never, ever the ingenue. The young, innocent lead was just not me.

Some people in my family achieved a lot, some people inherited a lot. But I turned my back on the whole thing.

I went for endless auditions for tiny parts in obscure plays, and never got one job until I was in 'Four Weddings'.

In the theatre, if you say 'Macbeth', all the actors will start looking very anxious. I'm so well-trained not to say it in the theatre that I can hardly say it in normal life.

There's a certain amount of self-aggrandising with actors, and I'm terribly shy of that.

I did become quite well known from 'Four Weddings and a Funeral', and it helped hugely. I wasn't as famous as Hugh Grant, but I certainly began to work.

I'm not crazy about oysters and offal and brains and stuff like that. It's vegetables that I really like. I worked in the River Cafe restaurant when it first opened, and I used to eat the leftover vegetables on the plates. They were so delicious.

I'm crazy about ducks and swans and geese, so I don't eat foie gras. I try to eat organic.

I love buying things. I could be one of those crazy hoarders.

I was one of those lucky people with only one talent. It is harder for people with many talents to decide what to do.

I do try and curb my mouth, but I find it really hard. I wonder how many jobs I've talked myself out of!

I don't feel my capabilities in cookery are as big as my desire - as with so many aspects of my life.

I can cook to please people, but it's quite conventional. I make a good sponge cake. I find it hard to follow recipes.

I was brought up with two sisters, so I do know about a three-way dynamic. It's a complex one, because it's easy for one to get left out and the others to gang up. In my family, we were all pretty up for it, but the dynamics would constantly change.

Don't believe everything you think - or feel.

When people said schooldays were the best days of your life, I remember thinking: 'Tell me it's not true. This cannot be it.' I don't think my life has ever been that bad again. It hasn't always been easy but at least I have been free.