I did my homework and didn’t go out much, and had a very highly developed kitsch fantasy life where I dreamed of being a dancing girl.

So what I do now is to pre-empt that by making the up into a virtue, and telling funny stories about how crap I am before people have a chance to notice it for themselves and think maybe I haven’t realised.

My dad had this philosophy that if you tell children they’re beautiful and wonderful then they believe it, and they will be. So I never thought I was unattractive. But I was never one of the girls at school who had lots of boyfriends.

I never felt I was quite the ticket academically. I always felt I had to put in an enormous amount of effort not to be disappointing. So I worked really hard, but at the time it suited me, because I didn’t do very much else.

I was terribly shy when I was growing up, I really wasn’t confident with other people and I think I was always afraid of up or not being this very cool, amazing person that I wanted to be.

I had friends at school, but I was never part of a gang and I dreamed of that sense of belonging to a group. You know, where people would call me ‘Em’ and shout across the bar, ‘Em, what are you drinking?’ after the show.

The odd thing is if you asked me to do the accent now I would find it very difficult unless I was also playing that part, because I associate it so much with entering into the role and stepping into someone else’s shoes.

51st State was one that I loved doing because the character was so out there, and in a way I was sad to leave the character behind. I’m afraid I could never be that cool in real life!

But I have to grow out of it, because it’s very boring, really. Even when you’re telling people how crap you are, you’re still banging on about yourself.

I think we probably will end up in America because he would be giving up much more to come and live here. If you want to work in film, that’s really where you have to be. But I’m not sure that being an ex-pat is very good for one’s sense of self.

I did my homework and didn’t go out much, and had a very highly developed kitsch fantasy life where I dreamed of being a dancing girl.

So far I haven’t really been prominent enough to get critical attention focused on me. So, of course, I fully expect bad reviews, but I will be wracked with misery as a result.