LARA PULVER

I like playing off strong actors, whether it's Benedict Cumberbatch or Dominic Cooper. Also I'm a hopeless romantic, so I'm fascinated by relationships.

I want to do a big Broadway musical, at some point. I would love to do that. To do something there would be super-cool.

Martin Freeman is a genius, he really is. He gives you every color of the rainbow in every take and it's wonderful just to play off of him and opposite him.

From a very young age, music was very much in my house. I would sit with my mom, with the old LPs, listening to The Beatles and Carly Simon and Lionel Richie. The old LPs used to have the lyrics. From there, I would put on dance and music displays for my family, just to entertain them and make people laugh and smile.

I'd love to have my own TV show, in the way that Julianna Margulies has 'The Good Wife,' or a lovely ensemble show, like 'Six Feet Under.'

I love my job, and I'm a lucky girl. I thoroughly enjoy going to work.

Nature. That's the one thing that tips the balance in terms of living here in California. Within minutes, I can be in a desert, at the ocean, in a park, and that's the most nourishing food for my soul.

I'm a walker, whether that's a stroll on the beach at sunset or getting up at eight o'clock on a Sunday morning and doing an eight-hour hike through a canyon. It's Zen time for me.

I think I was raised by a very humble mother, who, if anything, is probably over skeptical. She has that sense of everything being a bonus: like, you have your lot, and anything else is on top. She's quietly proud, and quietly humble.

I'm so bored of reading scripts with these wonderfully complex male roles, yet the woman character just sits on the bed waiting for him to come home.

I've always been active: netball, hockey, rounders, athletics.

I'm not an actress who's a fan of gratuity, so I don't seek projects that have nudity for nudity's sake. I don't know any actors who do, unless they're in 'Spartacus.'

There's something rich and nourishing in the mundane - that isn't sparkly or red carpet.

Having a family is really important. And there would be something missing in my life as a woman if I didn't at least attempt to fulfil that side of me. Just for a certain period of your life, to have your sole purpose to be nurturing, feeding and protecting someone else: it's animalistic, isn't it? It's beautiful.

I remember being an usherette at my local theater very, very early on, selling ice cream and programs - because they're not free in the U.K. - during pantomime season, which was super interesting. It meant a lot of kids, a lot of sweets, a lot of sugar-induced kids.

Competitiveness only comes with insecurity.

I'd love to do a comedy. I always told myself that I don't have funny bones, and then I was working with Dervla Kirwan in 'Uncle Vanya,' and she was like, 'Lara, you're really, really funny.' And I realised I am, and that's not even me blowing my own trumpet.

Initially after 'Sherlock,' I got offered a lot of swinger movies. There is that thing of keeping your mystique and not taking your clothes off in every job.

What we say no to is sometimes more important than what we say yes to.

When David Goyer comes to the small screen, what he's actually doing is making the small screen bigger.

I don't think it serves anyone to bottle emotions.

Sherlock' changed the perception of me. I have these cheekbones and this face that suggest very middle-class or period-drama roles. I want to show everyone there's much more to me than Irene Adler.

Fun and pleasure are just as delicious as achieving a goal.

I've always prided myself on working so hard and then achieving goals without realizing the pleasure is often in the journey. And actually, the journey can be just as fun, if not more so, than the outcome.

There's talk of the lack of roles for older women. It's so tough and it's soul-destroying what some female actors do to their faces to try and keep producers happy.