Andrea Riseborough
There's always hope, and there's always despair.Collection: Hope
When you're playing a romantic version of a real person, you're playing a version of the truth.Collection: Romantic
I think it's really hard to move between genres, and I think, especially in Britain, we're very judgmental about it - me included. I know that when an actor comes out with some poetry or an album, I think, 'Oh crikey, what's this going to be like?'Collection: Poetry
When I was younger, I used to try to fit in, but now I'm much more comfortable with just being myself.
I worked on 'Happy-Go-Lucky' for seven-and-a-half months, and I'm in it for two minutes - largely because Sally Hawkins turned left instead of right.
Puberty is an extremely traumatic process even if you don't realize it. It kind of lives with you for like 10 years.
My face is almost like a canvas - a blank canvas in the sense that the hair on my face is very, very fine and my skin is incredibly fair and my hair is quite dark, and that's very unusual.
Sometimes I can think of nothing more blissful than going to Berkeley and reading Byron for three years.
David Suchet's Poirot was very charming, and, when I'm away in the U.S., those series remind me of being in Britain and being British on a Sunday night.
People are fascinating. They're so unique and I think what's more fascinating is the reason behind the physical characteristic, the enigma, that's where the gold dust is.
My grandparents were deeply affected by war, and it was obvious that the men who fought were horribly affected, as were the women who remained at home.
I think any artist is a perfectionist by their nature.
I think every work is hard in different ways.
Sometimes I can receive the world and regurgitate my version of events easily and sometimes it's hard.
Fear is the enemy. I distrust it. Any feeling or decision I make that might be motivated by fear I quickly reassess.
Maybe I've just been incredibly fortunate, but there's a level of dedication, devotion, intensity and seriousness around me every day.
Every time you get the chance to work with somebody you admire and would like to collaborate with... it feels like the best opportunity that's ever come your way, whether that's in fringe theatre or a really big-budget Hollywood movie.
I am quite odd-looking in real life.
I think impersonation is a great art. It's something that I enjoy doing, in a frivolous and lighthearted way. But I don't flatter myself to think I'm an impersonator.
I'm interested in having a relationship with the world that's not my own.
I have no interest in doing anything other than good work.
I'm an artist; affirmation is like catnip to me.
I'm very pragmatic.
When I was little, I would always try and look into the television screen along the sides. I kept thinking if you looked in there, you could see what was happening off camera.
I don't like getting dressed up. It's hard because as a woman, as an actor, the whole world wants you to enjoy dressing up.
When I talk about work or my take on life, all the joyfulness and excitement never seem to make it in.
I love the company of actors, but the crazier it gets, the more I've come to realise how valuable my time is with my friends who work on the land or are builders or, you know, make music. Work in offices. Run shops.
I think it's the easiest thing in the world to be horribly critical about yourself.
People think I'm totally crackers.
I'm not even sure that any of us are ever ready for anything. We can be ripe, or over-ready, but what is that moment when we're actually ready?
I subscribe to no religion. But I believe that in the creation of art, there can be moments of God.
Often, I'll read a script and the female character's an extension or serves some sort of purpose in terms of the male character's narrative and it just isn't fully formed. But they will be very beautiful. Whether a secretary or a doctor or a vet, they will be very beautiful.
I think, really, what I'm interested in is whole women, real people.
There's something really simple and idyllic about living in a house very close to the water.
I've always thrown like a girl.
I don't read reviews, and it's not because I don't think I can learn something, I'm sure I could learn a lot. I just that I feel very passionately about the work and especially when you're doing theater, you really only need one director and when you read reviews, you feel like you have twelve, because you respond to them, naturally.
Sometimes you need to break away from something in order to know how much you need or want it.
I've worked with so few female directors.
I've always worked very hard.
I am a Graham Greene fan - I'm just a ferocious reader. I read an awful lot when I get the time.
You can't tell what's going to fulfill you in different stages in your life.
I think the most important thing when you're telling a story is to just tell the story as best as you possibly can.
I'm an odd mixture. I'm a sort of Geordie punk who started in classical theatre. It means nobody ever knows quite where to put me, but I like that.
I can't tell you how disheartening it is to be told to go home because the director is filming you from behind and you don't have the right kind of body. As an actress, to be told that... Well, it's just a very odd set of circumstances.
It's hard for us to imagine, as humans, that we'll become less powerful. But it'll be healthier for the planet and for the eco-system if that does happen. If humans are going to merge with machines, then let's get on with it. I love humans, but I also love dinosaurs - I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have wanted them to die out, either.
I always do a lot of work around characters to make them real people because, oftentimes, they really are a sliver of a person. Even with truly wonderful writers, women characters are there to emote, and they're often incredibly chaste or worthy. Or they're a 'different type of woman', which is the worst.
I don't relate to people that look like me. I find it deeply unsatisfying to play a version of myself. It was something I had to figure out really early on, when I was at RADA, because I was being cast, over and over again, as the young, virginal thing. When I left RADA, I was on an absolute mission to never wear make-up.
Transformation as a female actor is allowed up to a certain extent - as long as they can still recognize you on a red carpet. For a woman to be a shape-shifter, and to be that malleable in spirit, is really not OK with the patriarchy.
Women are really complex and totally enigmatic. Humans are really complex, but in film, we've only ever seen that with men. We've seen antiheroes time and again with male characters.
I tend to be overly responsible for other people's feelings.