OLIVIA COLMAN

I always assumed I'd be a terribly patient mum but it turns out I'm not!

I always assumed I would leave drama school and do 'Lady Macbeth' and all sorts of serious things. It just didn't happen.

I don't like the bullying, do-one-over style of comedy. It's so cheap.

I love my job and I know I am very lucky but still, if you audition and you don't get it, it still affects you.

You see thousands of films you forget the minute you come out of the cinema, don't you? Because they don't mean anything. It's the tough ones like 'Breaking the Waves' and 'Nil By Mouth' that stay with you, that you never forget. I'd like to leave a few of those behind if possible.

I am a bit sickie happy. I am prone to black clouds too, but... I am embarrassed about them. It's like: 'My diamond shoes are too tight. My money clip doesn't fit all my fifties.' I mean - really. Shut up.

I'm not a pin-up, thankfully. I'm not suggesting I feel unconfident. I am beautiful to my husband. I am beautiful to my friends. I feel sexy and all those things with the people I love.

The first time I did a school play was the first time I felt I was good at anything at all. I just loved it.

If the script's good, everything you need is in there. I just try and feel it, and do it honestly. I also don't learn things for auditions, because I feel like it's just a test of memorizing rather than being real. Maybe every other actor would think that was terrible, I don't know. But it seems to have worked for me, so far.

If I didn't have children I might be more of a lush than I am. I like booze. I struggle with smoking. And I'm a big swearer. I'm trying to rein it in but I do think it's a nice seasoning of language.

I had a lovely, feral, free childhood - out and then come back when you're hungry or it gets too dark. I feel slightly cruel that I'm not offering my children the same.

If a script is good, you are 10 steps into the part just reading it. But my choices are not all down to my taste. It is about people you have worked with before.

This may sound mad, but you sort of assume that no one's going to watch what you do. You go on set, have a lovely time, and then you forget anyone's going to see it. So it's always a bit of a shock to be recognized. I get terribly embarrassed.

Everything with me is pretty close to the surface, but having kids has completely ruined my emotional equilibrium.

I feel fortunate that I'm not a beauty. I'm not a classic beauty. I feel it is harder for girls who are like that. There are fewer parts.

In fact I was slightly badly behaved at school and got in trouble. I would get a bee in my bonnet about something I thought wasn't right, and I would ape about too, to make everybody laugh. That was my way through my girls' school, because I wasn't very academic.

You can over-think things. If the script's good, everything you need is in there. I just try and feel it and do it honestly. I also don't learn things for auditions, because I feel like it's just a test of memorising rather than being real.

I have done Botox, and I loved it.

Acting is playing, and it is like being a big kid. Yeah, it's great. You get paid.

Actually, lots of women, when they're pregnant, feel like steel. They feel incredible.

I spent years commuting into London when I was working as a temp, and I hated the monotony of it.

When you've got children, it's easy to do that thing of keeping a tally of who woke up earliest and whose turn it is to put them to bed. But I think the important thing is to appreciate and love each other and to show that appreciation.

I want to be helpful to the charities I support. I think you can dilute it, the more you do. You have to be a bit strong about what you do... otherwise, you risk spreading yourself a bit thin, and you can be less useful.

Dementia is such a terrifying thing for all of us, and we are particularly bad at coping with old people in this country.

I'm always keen to have more training as a charity patron.