I enjoy those small chats you have when people come up and talk to you about your work. It only involves a few seconds of effort to be nice to those people, and I am very grateful for the kind words that people have taken the trouble to express to me in person.

The problems come when your personal life and relationships come under scrutiny in the press and often very uncomplimentary things are printed about you.

Not only was it nearly impossible to hear because of these huge rubber ears we had to wear, but we also had these huge furry hands which were absolutely useless, especially if you had to scratch yourself.

I drink booze, I smoke, and I’m hooked on caffeine. I actually have been known to swear at times and belch and even raise my voice when provoked. And I’m not physically repressed!

I was sad that Corpse Bride was so short. I would’ve liked to have had her around for way longer. She doesn’t actually have that many scenes.

The animators are absolutely extraordinary. It’s mind-boggling.

Because I sleep with him he asked me to audition, you know?

It was weird because I was pregnant, throughout that so it was weird being a pregnant witch. I was in a really bad mood but luckily, because I sleep with the director, he just sort of scheduled me so I only had to do it two nights.

Tim also has enough confidence so that it always looks like a Tim Burton film, but it really is collaborative. You’re allowed to do it your way but of course he’s always going to choose his way.

What I loved about playing the corpse is that obviously somebody else got to do the physical part. It appeals to the part of me that likes playing character parts and getting the chance to get away from my own physicality.

That’s the thing with animated films – I often feel that puppets get the better parts compared to us normal actresses.

People say, ‘You’re still breast-feeding, that’s so generous.’ Generous, no! It gives me boobs and it takes my thighs away! It’s sort of like natural liposuction. I’d carry on breast-feeding for the rest of my life if I could.

I hate this image of me as a prim Edwardian. I want to shock everyone.

You learn to rely on a few basic movements and use your voice to the greatest extent possible to convey your emotions. So there was a technical challenge there and a responsibility to create a character from behind the mask.

It was a challenge to be able to create a character without being able to use one’s normal set of expressions. All the rubber and makeup attached to your face left you with only a modest range of facial movements.

I don’t think kids have a problem with death. It’s us older ones who are nearer to it, that start being frightened.

No matter how many modern parts I do, people still refer to me as Mrs. Costume Drama. Fight Club is a studio pic, and I’ve done very few of those. I’ve got a feeling it’s going to change things for me.

I have to struggle to change people’s perceptions of me. I grew very frustrated with the perception that I’m this shy, retiring, inhibited aristocratic creature when I’m absolutely not like that at all. I think I’m much more outgoing and exuberant than my image.

I’m the kind of actor who has ventured into escaping from me.

Famous people come up to me, but I don’t know who they are because my sight is so bad. It’s always at the pool of the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills when I don’t have my lenses in and my glasses are in my room.

It didn’t matter what you look like. You don’t have to get up at 5:30 in the morning and there’s a lot to be said for that. Corpse Bride can just play all my parts from now on and I’ll just do the voice.

I was like one of those nauseatingly nice children. I was very, very well behaved and boring.

Most of my relationships were people in the business. Having said that, me and Tim don’t really talk that much about work. He comes into my bit of the house every so often to vent but we don’t really have very high, cultured conversations.

Multitasking? I can’t even do two things at once. I can’t even do one thing at once.

Journalists are always calling my features Edwardian or Victorian, whatever that means. I am small, and people were smaller in those times. I’m pale and sickly-looking. I look fragile-like a doll. But sometimes I just wish I had less of a particular look, one that was more versatile.

It’s different when you’re an actor and playing a part, but when it’s just you, you feel immensely vulnerable have strangers prodding and prying.

All the ancient classic fairy tales have always been scary and dark.

I think I’ve still got a bit of a sado-masochistic streak in me, because if I’m not going to be restricted by corsets and covered in lace, then I still wind up wearing an ape-mask over my face. I do wonder how I get myself in these situations!

I love changing what I look like because I always feel super strange whenever I do watch something that I’m in.

I’m not dead and I don’t have blue hair but some people say there are similarities. It is usually intolerable to watch myself onscreen but this time it’s fine. I think it’s beautiful and a real work of art.

Usually I’m frustrated when I look at my films and I don’t believe that I’ve made a real transformation beyond my usual sets of gestures and expressions. I still have this nagging feeling that it’s me, that I didn’t create a unique character.

I enjoy those small chats you have when people come up and talk to you about your work. It only involves a few seconds of effort to be nice to those people, and I am very grateful for the kind words that people have taken the trouble to express to me in person.

People have lots of misconceptions about me. My mum, who is half French and half Spanish, gets outraged when I’m called quintessentially English. I owe my looks to my mum-which was 90 percent of getting my first job. And, some people would argue, 90 percent of my entire career.

With the number of people I ignore, I’m lucky I work at all in this town.

It would be nice to really shed the corsets.

You become very angry and depressed that you keep getting offered only these exceedingly demure and repressed roles. They’re so not me. That’s why films like Fight Club were so important to me because I think I confounded certain stereotypes and limited perceptions of what I could do as an actress.

You can actually have a pitch button, you know, to get people on pitch.

I also get fed up with the fact that casting agents and directors have this impression of me as being frail and petite. I find it very patronizing. I’m quite beefy and strong. I was a gymnast in school and I have lots of muscles.

It took me so many years to move out. I’m definitely a bit of a Peter Pan, reluctant to grow up. It all seemed really nice at home-why change it? Part of me would prefer not to have any responsibility whatsoever.