I always think I am going to do my best.

I’ve always been creative, I think.

And it is very sexy as well: somebody says I’m taking you on a surprise date, you don’t know where you are going and you can’t see and then you put your hand out and there is a tiger. Amazing.

The film Punch – Drunk Love is how you see the world when you’re in love. You don’t see somebody’s psychological baggage necessarily, you see the person walking out of the light.

When I did get home this last time, we had all these plans to go out. And then we hardly stepped outside because the time together seemed too precious.

I grew up without a television. It meant that I read lots of books and entertained myself.

I always think I am going to do my best.

I do think you feel a little bit like you are preying on people’s lives.

I was a normal, rather dutiful child. I didn’t even rebel as a teenager.

It’s a whole different kind of anxiety. But the great thing about doing a theatre job is that once the ball starts rolling you just have to go with it, it’s inexorable.

My husband. He keeps me grounded. If I were in the world on my own, it would all be much more seductive. But I’m in a relationship that has nothing to do with the film world.

I don’t think I will be less good because there’s less pressure on me.

My character Lena is somebody who responds to people in a very simple way. I didn’t have to take myself off to a darkened room to concentrate, I just had to try and be open. It’s an interesting, subtle relationship.

During Breaking The Waves, I was on my own in a hotel room. I think I would have been impossible to live with. When you go home, you have to pretend to be the person you are at home.

As actors, we went where we wanted to, and the camera followed us: it was like having another person in the room. There was no formal structure to the process. It was very liberating.

You have to play the logic of a character.

I think so, Silence of the Lambs was a great, suspenseful thriller and I would expect Red Dragon to be similar. And I think it’s very character driven.

Yeah, a lot of people think I’ll be a tortured nutcase when they meet me.

It’s an incredible privilege for an actor to look into the camera. It’s like looking right into the heart of the film, and you can’t take that lightly.

When the time came to make a decision about what do in life, I found myself thinking that acting was the thing I loved to do, so I applied to drama school. And then, I didn’t get in – twice.