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.

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

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

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.

I'm in a really good place. I used to be a right worrier, but being in a settled relationship has made a massive difference. I was on my own for three years before meeting David. I'm very happy with him, he's a fantastic man. But you never know what's around the corner, so you just hope for the best.

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

We will spend more time in America, we're going to get a place in LA as hotels aren't great for the baby.

If oil exploration can threaten a place as beautiful and meaningful as Virunga, where next?

I've never been onstage in my life.

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.

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.

In Hollywood I got work but not the right work until Pushing Daisies. Every girl in LA wanted the part of Chuck. I was terrified - I didn't know if I could be funny.

But Americans find me bizarre and always ask me why I eat so many carbs. I tell them I don't get full otherwise.

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.

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

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.

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

When you're given something new, it's always exciting 'cause you're the first one to do it. You're not having to live up to any expectations, or be compared to anyone who's ever done it before.

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'd like to put the record straight about that. I've been labelled an irresponsible role model for young mothers, but none of it is true. I couldn't even walk for two weeks after the birth, let alone exercise. I ate very healthily all the way through my pregnancy and afterwards. I didn't do anything extreme.

I've got the best lead man, I really love my lead man.

There were reports of me using fat-sucking machines and all sorts of silliness. All I did was walk a lot and breast-feed. I've never been on a strict diet. I just don't overeat, and I don't eat if I'm not hungry.

I was so completely anxious before I had a child, but now my biggest worry is something happening to her, so anything other than that I can handle. That's not to say I'm calm, because that would be b****cks! I wish it were the case, but it's getting better as I get older.

My whole family is quite petite, so I have good genes on my side. But I find it quite tiresome that we have to keep talking about sizes and how much weight we can lose.

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

These women need to feel that we're all aware of what they may be going through, to give them the confidence to speak out.

When I'm working, it's those actors (you know who you are) who sit around moaning that their trailer isn't big enough, or how bad their facilities are. I can't be doing with any of that, I just like to get on with it.

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.