Actresses From England

"“Heart-forward means a few things,” she says. “I can be a caring person and really support your team and your people without being a pushover. It also means that I always want to leave people better than when I found them.”"

"They said, ‘You always bring me step five and you make me figure out one through four. If you could please include me so that I can be a part of all five steps.’ They were absolutely right. I was giving them directives without the right tools. I've really listened to those moments because if I'm managing one person like that, am I managing all people like that?”"

"“My parents felt that I was the good choice for the helm of the ship. My brother and I looked at it and he agreed. And we agreed that we could make this work and he became chief operations officer. My brother is an awesome partner. Where I'm weak, he's strong, and where he's weak, I'm strong. We're a good complement to each other.”"

"They quickly promoted me to a manager and a trainer, and I worked there for a year to get my feet back under me,”"

"“One of the essential qualities of the clinician is interest in humanity, for the secret of the care of the patient is in caring for the patient.”"

"“about reconceptualizing the way Americans think about health so as to uncover opportunities to increase the effectiveness of American health care.”"

"“The US Constitution is silent on social and economic rights: there is no Constitutional guarantee of a right to education, or to old-age pensions,”"

"“What are the hallmarks of a patient? Let's see - passive, helpless, things are done sequentially, and well, that is not how people recover. That is not how people learn to live the lives they want or dream of.”"

"“the view that health care and social service investments may best be thought of as operating on a continuum, or perhaps even as two sides of the same coin.”"

"That was my first battle with male authority. I discovered after a while in The Avengers that I was earning less than the cameraman. I made a bit of a song and dance about it and demanded more. I was ahead of the game, in that respect, because nobody backed me up. There was no sisterhood. In those days, you were on your own."

"Becoming a sex symbol overnight [in The Avengers] shocked me. I didn’t know how to handle it and I kept all the unopened fan mail in the boot of my car because I didn't know how to respond and thought it was rude to throw it away."

"Obviously, it's great that has happened, and great it was a young audience — terrific [...] That's the nature of my profession. The young, I don't expect them to know about my past, but if, through Game of Thrones, they discover me, that's good."

"[On the attempted suicide of her husband, actor Robert Stephens, who was playing the lead in the film The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970) at the time] And after that it was just hopeless. We had two little boys. He didn't understand. I sure as hell didn't understand. It got worse and then it went on getting worse and worse. In the end it was destroying everybody. And he was having so many affairs. [Stephens saw doctors] I remember when he was diagnosed as hyper-manic asking what it meant and the doctor saying violent moods swings and indiscriminate sexual activity. And I thought "that about covers it really"."

"It's true I don't tolerate fools but then they don't tolerate me, so I am spiky. Maybe that's why I'm quite good at playing spiky elderly ladies."

"I had that accent which prejudices people against you so instantly, or makes them respect you so falsely."

"There is more to my life than sex, money, fame and a few ­horrific people I have met once or twice. Certainly I've been in love, been loved and had some highly comic adventures. So has your typist and the girl who does your wife's hair and so have most of the sensible swinging girls of ­today I am trying to represent."

"When asked which parts I would most like to play, I always say Richard III and Hamlet. But everyone expects me to say St Joan."

"I began to entertain the other kids, but I don't think they always appreciated it — they thought I was a bit of a show off. I got a good training for being an actress though, because while the people at the children's home didn't approve of dancing — they were very strict Methodists and thought dancing involved too much physical contact — they did approve of drama, and they even used to raise money with end of term shows when visitors would come and see how well we were being looked after."

"[Reported as being one of two "bachelor girls" (the other being Barbara Shelley) who is "wary of marriage"] I think a career makes you selfish when it's going well — probably too clinging when it isn't."

"I approach every character with the intention of making them as complicated as we all are."

"[For her role in The Entertainer] I turned up to casting in a room crowded with young women, all looking the same except I was a bit younger. So I let the pony tail down, took the hoop out of my petticoat and read the lines in my best RP, as I'd been taught to do. Director Tony Richardson was dismissing me with a "Thank you dear" but he later told me that as I walked away, he'd noticed the scuff marks on my heels. It must have sparked a thought in his head because he called out, "Can you say the lines in a northern accent?" I was furious, and I yelled [in strong Lancastrian tones]: "I’ve spent five years bloody trying not to.""

"I tend to head for what's amusing because a lot of things aren't happy. But usually you can find a funny side to practically anything."

"I was so happy to be working with people I was comfortable with in The Royal Court crowd. It was such a relief after spending five years being hassled or groped by this star or that, to feel like I was appreciated. It was reassuring. As regards kitchen sink, I prefer to call them 'social realism' as I think it's a more accurate term."

"[On her early modelling career] I hoped my mother would see the photographs and she'd find me and want me [...] That was my dream."

"I wanted to be a serious actress, but of course that didn't really happen. I did Desdemona [at the National, opposite Olivier] with great discomfort and was terrified all the time. But then everyone was terrified of Larry."

"There was one Sister that I think got sacked because of me [...] There was a system in place at the home if you were very lonely you could take your mattress and sleep in Sister's bedroom. I was sleeping on the floor one night when she did something to me and I didn't like it, so much that I wet the bed in anger. As a result, she threw me into the bathroom and under a boiling hot geyser and I was screaming in pain. Another Sister came in and stopped it, wrapped me in a towel and sat me on her knee. Two weeks later, [the first] Sister was gone."

"I suppose the thing I'm most sad about [...] is that in my thirties, when I was at my most photogenic and knew what I was doing, I didn't consolidate my career. That annoys me. I'd have liked to play one magical role in my thirties."

"But I'm pretty secure about who I am. Anything that's truthful I'm not ashamed of."

"When I do things that aren't very good, I'm worse as an actor. I don't know what I pick up - but it's something not very nice."

"I don't like going for more than a year without doing theatre. I don't mind falling flat on my face so long as I feel I'm open to the possibility of something extraordinary happening."

"“That’s what life is like: it’s never black and white. I think so often drama sort of glosses over the difficulty of these situations.""

"I'd hate to lose the character actress part of me, because, by God, the parts are much more interesting. As a black actress, all I was offered in British film was the best friend role, whereas in television, I was offered a whole spectrum of parts. I'd love to be able to follow that through into my newly-formed film career which I didn't expect to get at 36!"

""The question with beauty pageants is what your background is, what your motivation is and whether that can represent freedom for you or others, or represent a stepping stone to a bigger life.”"

"“I use all sorts of sources — but I always go back to the script. And then I just let the thing live in my body a bit. So when I’m on set I’m not thinking in any linear way about what I’m doing: I just do it.”"

""If you’ve been through something like that, you get to see something outside of yourself and maybe have a perspective on it that allows you to talk about it with somebody or digest it in a certain way.”"

"“There’s a long way to go before we have complete equality and we need films like this to push us along and to remind us of the legacy of the women who came before us. Hopefully, it will inspire young women to keep fighting for a better future.”"

"“You can’t really underestimate the power of that to make people feel less alone or to help in the healing process.”"

"" I think sometimes when you bring down big complex issues and big conflicts to just two people in a room, people start to understand each other.”"

"Even though it’s a TV show, these issues are very real and there’s a real potential for healing when you get to see those stories."

"By Isabelle Truman, https://graziamagazine.com/articles/gugu-mbatha-raw-interview/"

"Without hammering you over the head with it, the movie gets you to ask questions. That's what good movies do."

"I'm drawn to stories about ordinary people who get tangled up in an extraordinary event or idea or emotion. I'm not saying I don't love films about super-people or super-doctors, but my preference is for stories about how we get through this life, what it is to be human, because I'm always struggling with it myself."

"I'm just going where the stories are. I'll quite happily work in a tiny theater in the middle of nowhere if it's the right story. It always leaves a bit of a nasty taste in my mouth when I do something purely for money. I always end up being absolute shit in it. I'm not really an actor who can make rubbish writing good. Some people are very good at it. It's a real skill."

"[on being awarded the OBE in June 2010] The cherry on the cake and way beyond anything I would have imagined for myself."

"“I’m not particularly intellectual, the way I approach things. I’m a completely physically actor; I think physically and I let my body lead me to the emotions.”[https://variety.com/2020/tv/features/sophie-okonedo-ratched-criminal-uk-psychology-1234775958/ ]"

"Being a character actor, I can go on until I'm 70 or 80; I'm not bound to the way I look."

"The repetition of the theatre means you've got the time to get deeply inside the person you're playing."

"I think all of us (cast members had ideal endings in mind for our characters), to be honest, because you start trying to write the story yourself"

"And (Williams) and I would fantasize about a Cersei and Arya showdown that she would come back as Jaime. That was our dream. But they made different choices"

"I miss the people — because you fall in love with people, and you create these family units. So that takes a little while to go through. There's a weird grief from those relationships."