Anna Friel Quotes

I play a character every day of my life, and I don`t want to play a character as myself. They can judge me as an actress, not as a person. I`m not a spokeswoman for Anna.

People became more interested in my love life than in me, and that has a certain effect. You start to feel very empty and worth nothing, you start to become a piece in a board game you never wanted to play.

You can see when an actor gets bored: Their eyes go dead. I promised myself I`d never let that happen. If it does, I`ll go and live on a desert island for a year.

"Some producer suddenly grabbed my doughnut out of my hand. Then he said, `Anna, you really shouldn`t be doing that`. He said, `your tummy`s not looking right on screen`. If it`s just about that they should have hired a model. I mean, we`re not talking about a big f**king tummy here!"

Being a mother gives you an incredible feeling of empowerment, you think if I can go through such pain and that level of sleep and still operate and not be grumpy you can do anything. It can be quite scary, you can`t function your brain, forget your vocabulary.

I want more children but for the next three years I want to act.

I`ve always chosen incredibly different roles and things that are quite offbeat. That way you`re not limited.

As long as she is talented enough and passionate about doing it herself then I will be happy and support her. I think I will be sensible - my parents said I could only do it if I got my education and so I had something to fall back on.

I`ve only just started to think that I can make a career out of this. At the end of my time in Brookside, I wondered if I`d ever work again.

And the most important thing - apart from telling a good, believable story, and being a true character - is to be someone the audience will care about, even if you`re playing a murderer or rapist.

I`ve been onstage once for one performance with four days` rehearsal.

The doctors say it dates back to a film where I had these huge prosthetic breasts because my character was breast-feeding. The weight of them, and of the baby, did my back in.

Well ironically my last three roles have all been a mother. One was a Canadian film where the baby was taken away because she is a drug addict, in Irish Jam I play a mother to a four year old. I think in the future I`ll be able to handle the role with a lot more depth.

It`s really important to draw the line on what we do as actors.

Now learning a bit more about footballers I think what they need to do well, is someone who really wants to stay in the background and just be a strong support.

Last month I spent six months in New York working with Barry Levinson but I didn`t want to stay there, I could have but I wanted to come home.

I look at being an actress as being like a mummy: You`re bandaged up and preserved as soon as you start making other people money.

We will spend more time in America, we`re going to get a place in LA as hotels aren`t great for the baby.

I`ve never been to a live match but now having made this film I`m going to - I`m going to Real Madrid so it`ll be done with a bang!

I`ve never been onstage in my life.

Onstage, there`s no hiding; you either can or can`t act. There`s no second take.

Well it`s hard to bracket it like that because everyone always thinks you either go to America and you come back, fail or succeed, but it doesn`t work like that.

I also like the fact that the character isn`t a typical footballer`s wife, she doesn`t need the bling and being at the forefront of everything.

It`s placing your words carefully, and keeping everything nice, kind of hidden behind a smile. People don`t want to see your insecurities here.

David is 13 years my senior and has much more experience.

For Closer, we`ve had five weeks. You go into every single word because it`s very, very concentrated dialogue.

For me personally, everything is on a kiss.

I have the most lovely, healthy bouncing baby, she was all very compact and the right size.