Greta Scacchi

Having had a reputation for being sexy is a great prop to lean on now.

I look for people who’re passionate, dedicated to the text, and in whom I trust completely.

You seldom get that in film where you’re lucky if you get any say at all in the final cut.

I came to Ireland 20 years ago as a student, hitch-hiking round for a week and staying in Dublin.

I’ve been through some very difficult stages in my life, but I wouldn’t change anything.

Once, I had so many scripts coming to me that I could hardly read them all.

With a theatre audience there’s always the additional sense of a sustained challenge of which I’m acutely aware and for which you need to have the tools ready – your voice, physicality, brain.

I feel lucky, happy and philosophical about it all.

The only work I did for the next five years after splitting from Vincent was work I’d already lined up.

I have done everything I can to make sure my daughter knows her father because you form your own identity by rebelling against your parents – but first you have to know them.

In many ways, when you’re young and sexy, it’s very annoying to be whistled at and to have someone always trying to attract your attention, but now when it happens I find myself registering the fact almost warmly.

My father was absent and he was a hero to me.

I want to come across as a positive person.

I always knew it was going to be difficult when I got beyong 40, but I didn’t realise it would start at 35.

It helped me when I decided that we’re on this planet to learn to live together and get along.

I’m a heathen when it comes to marriage.

Two people can make love but that isn’t necessarily love.

On the stage, you alone hold the key, and on the night you have to trust that the director has inspired you enough to take the material and run with it.

I have invested some money and I have a home, but people don’t realise that you might only be working for a few weeks of the year and remain unemployed the rest of the time.

A relationship requires a lot of work and commitment.

Hollywood will accept actresses playing ten years older, but actors can play ten years younger.

I avoided nudity unless a film couldn’t be told without those scenes. If you look at my films, few of them have that element, yet nudity and male fantasies have become emblematic of my work.

I had the conviction that lovemaking fools you. The overpowering emotions it induces make you think you’re sharing the same feelings as the other person and that they’re imagining the same as you.

Theatre is a sacred space for actors. You are responsible; you are in the driving-seat.