I realised you could become fat and bald as a director and still remain employable.
There's something about doing Shakespeare with a single gender, whether it is all-male or all-female, that opens up certain possibilities. You are able to throw the behavior of the men into a particular relief and be playful within a slightly larger-than-life way with it.
In a way, 'Mamma Mia!' was such a left-field thing for me.
In Europe, it is not so unusual for directors to move between opera, theatre, and film, and I have at least three girlfriends I can think of who have directed in all three genres.
I wanted to be an actress from about the age of five.
To be invited to the Park - the greatest free Shakespeare festival in the world - is a great honor, and I don't take it lightly.
I worked on live studio drama, which was one weird aberration in the 1980s. I worked on the 'Battle of Waterloo,' and my job was to reload the Brown Bess muskets - the only time the audience realised it was live was when somebody leant on a button and plunged the whole studio into blackout.
The power of a close-up can be extraordinary, but you have to have actors who are able to reveal themselves.
Margaret Thatcher was pro-choice. She voted to decriminalize homosexuality. Was not profoundly religious. She was very liberal on social issues.
'The Handmaid's Tale' is a horrifying and horrifyingly possible vision of the future.
One is always attracted to pieces of theatre with great roles for women.
Do as much theatre as you can while you're at school.
Onstage, there's a separation between character and audience; onscreen, you can go to a deeper place.
If you're an actor, you have to look spiffing. But as the director, you don't need to look so glamorous.
I was given a mask of myself by Frances Barber when we opened 'Julius Caesar.' I looked much younger and prettier. Wearing it was certainly cheaper than Botox.
If you have bad hair and you bite your nails, nobody expects that you can't direct plays.
I started working in London, and I've been free-lance ever since.
Movie-making is an extreme sport on many levels. It requires stamina such as I had never imagined.
I was hellbent on going to drama school, but my mother, rightly, panicked and persuaded me to go to university on the grounds that a degree would be 'something to fall back on.' Whilst at college, I realised I wasn't good enough or robust enough to be an actress.
In a way, the debate about Margaret Thatcher in Britain has just gotten fossilized in this notion that she is either this she-devil who wrecked the industrial base of the country and ruined the lives of millions, or she is the blessed Margaret who saved the nation and rescued us from our post-war decline.