quotes
"I've worked with children in almost everything I've done and it's always been an enriching experience."
Talking about working with children.
"Kids say their lines so simply and truthfully - I love working with them."
Talking about working with children.
"I was incredibly grateful to be honoured in that way, but the real meaning for me comes in the work I do."
Talking about her Oscar nomination.
"I tend to look for scripts that have a bit of meaning to them."
Talking about what she looks for in a script.
"It tends to have an urgency that I love; it's very raw, you never know if you're going to get the film finished and you're running around doing loads of scenes. But I would take that any day over a film that lasts months and months and has all the money in the world where you're just doing a tiny bit each day. That for me would be quite boring."
Talking about her love of low-budget films.
"I was thinking, when I was on the Aftermath set, that I should lighten up, do more comedy. Anything I’m in I wouldn’t really watch myself!"
Talking about playing dramatic roles.
"Obviously, since Rwanda I have been offered lots of parts set in Africa. I suppose they think, oh, she’s good, and she can play an African. I think that’s how it happens."
Talking about Hotel Rwanda.
"If I look back over the past few years, it’s true I do attract a certain type of part. Maybe there is something going on inside me that causes that to happen. I don’t know. Perhaps in a different phase of my life I will be doing different things.”
Talking about the types of roles she plays.
“I can see the UNICEF programme is working because the kids have got back their sense of mischief, even after such a devastating tragedy, it’s inspiring to see how much can be done.”
Talking about the charity Unicef.
"I like anything that is slightly offbeat. I am also partial to a nice suit, and I have a couple of lovely ones from Armani."
Talking about her taste in clothing.
"I won't be wearing hotpants - this season or any season."
Talking about her taste in clothing.
"Don and I got on very well, we're very close friends now, and I think the world is going to see him completely differently as an actor after this film."
Talking about co-star Don Cheadle.
"I wanted to know about how she met Paul and her life in Kigali as a mother before the genocide. We've had quite a few nights chatting over red wine."
Talking about meeting the real Tatiana Rusesabagina.
"I don't like going for more than a year without doing theatre. I don't mind falling flat on my face so long as I feel I'm open to the possibility of something extraordinary happening."
Talking about her love of theatre work.
"I'm drawn to stories about ordinary people who get tangled up in an extraordinary event or idea or emotion. I'm not saying I don't love films about super-people or super-doctors, but my preference is for stories about how we get through this life, what it is to be human, because I'm always struggling with it myself."
Talking about the types of scripts that interest her.
"If I'm just handed a script and someone says, “Do that character,” I find it impossible. I have to dig deep, get a sense of it, and then it just kind of happens."
Talking about how she gets into character.
"I have always experimented in switching off after doing roles but I think that a part of it always stays with you, so part of this experience has definitely stayed with me."
Talking about Hotel Rwanda.
"I was with my Mum in an art gallery here in England and I was really shocked and she was screaming and security had to ask her to calm down."
Talking about her Oscar nomination.
