I used to have an Australian accent for school and an Irish accent for home.Collection: Home
I think moving from Ireland to Australia, you couldn't get a more different accent on the palate. The Irish accent is very muscular and involves a lot of tongue and cheek-muscle work, whereas the Australian accent is really flat; the palate is quite broad. They're at almost opposite ends of the scale, so I feel it was good training.
I'm a bit of a mongrel, really!
There's such a fascination with celebrity. I think that's a very different thing to being an actor.
I've had quite a wide spread of a career. But it's not like I've had to negotiate what Sienna Miller has had to negotiate, or even Felicity Jones, for example.
My goal has always been, from the time I was at drama school, about longevity.
Certainly in my youth there was lots of singing, lots of storytelling, and whenever we went to a party, you had to do a party piece, like sing songs, recite poems, or tell stories. That sort of narrative musical culture was my upbringing.
When I was around 13 or 14, there were visits to the theater, which really ignited my passion. Going to see live theater is when I properly got the bug and hoped I'd be able to do it for a living one day.
Whenever I do a play, there are 'Star Wars' fans at the stage door, and they're always lovely - so excited and so effusive about the storylines and the characters. When you're doing something really serious, and the 'Star Wars' fans are waiting outside, it's a nice juxtaposition.
I think most Irish people are creative. Whether it's music, or dance, or... certainly storytelling is in the blood.
I was the only one silly enough to carry it on to the professional level, but I would say most of my family - and my extended family - are storytellers. And really, that's just what acting is.
It's great to have a job and then go to another one, and have another one to go to after that. It doesn't always happen; you might be waiting a few months. But I've had some interesting roles, and worked with some great people. And it has been a really interesting mix between theatre television and film.
Isn't everybody a 'Star Wars' fan?
I have a few homes. I have my family home in Adelaide where my parents and my brothers and sisters are, and I have a few friends and my place where I used to live in Sydney, and then my husband and our family in London, so... I'm from everywhere and nowhere.
I'm a working actor, and that's what I always wanted.
I love Adelaide. It's a great place.
I think there's a responsibility to any character that you play that was a living persona.
We used to speak Irish - Gaelic Irish - around the dinner table, but over the years, we lost that.
I'm not sure I'm a good cook. But I like cooking, and it's a real family thing - an expression of love being together.
What's that comment about every actor being a waiter who is out of a job? I did a lot of waitressing, and I loved it because I love getting to know people from different places.
Me and my husband make decisions together, and we think of the children always, as a lot of jobs take you away as an actor, and it's a bit of a gypsy lifestyle.
All of my dad's family, his brothers and sisters, my nana and grandad and all of the cousins emigrated to Australia within two years of each other. Irish families are close at the best of times, but when you move to the other side of the world, we were like a big posse over there.
I think there are lots of reasons to take projects. Being scared about one is always good.
It's not difficult to be attracted to Rupert Penry-Jones.
I love going away with friends - it gets a bit raucous and fun.