I have to write for everyone. What really fascinates me is how you make films or make stories that can genuinely be shared by different groups.
I am who I am, and there is nothing I can do about that.
I present the nominees, well, not me the Voice of God, for Best Screenplay.
Difficult for actors to extemporise in nineteenth-century English. Except for Robert Hardy and Elizabeth Spriggs, who speak that way anyway.
Sometimes I get to put on posh frocks and be Madam Glamour, the vendor of my wares. My lovely friend Kath, a stylist, puts me into things I’d never dream of. But my real life is very different. It’s very, very home-based – an intense domestic life, that’s the core of everything.
We must remember that all these things, the nuances, the anomalies, the subtleties, which we assume only accessorize our days are in fact here for a much larger and nobler cause. They are here to save our lives.
What was important was trying to create something that families could watch together and enjoy together.
The thing that influenced me most in relation to ‘Nanny McPhee’ were the Westerns I watched with my father. All the Spaghetti Westerns; all the Virginians; all the High Chaparrals. Because if you think about the form, it’s a stranger from out of town.
We belabour, I think, under a very heavy crust of consumerism really.
My mother has never approved of high heels. As a result, I have never been able to walk in high heels – and they were all I ever wanted. So of course, my daughter has two pairs.
It’s not my fault that there is this gap between rich and poor, it is the fault of governments. I want a different world. One where I don’t wake up thinking I’m so lucky to be able to feed my daughter.
It is remarkable how many misconceptions there are here about life in the developing world and I think that that knowledge gap has done a lot to contribute to the imbalance quite frankly.
I think the point about ActionAid is what it’s asking people to do is engage with poor people in developing countries and understand what their lives are like and understand how the way we live our lives impacts on theirs.
I think people say you shouldn’t work with children or animals, but you must only work with children.
If there’s a role you’re playing and there’s a great deal of material to explore because the person was real then it’s a completely different preparation time and message to playing someone fictional.
It doesn’t matter how good the movie is. What matters is what it takes during the opening weekend. It’s slightly distressing sometimes but that’s how it works.
The flashbacks are parallel for me. You experience two storylines at the same time, and I’m not switching from one time to another.
Kissing Hugh was lovely. Glad I invented it. Can’t rely on Austen for a snog, that’s for sure.
Families are weird. You’d think that people who live and eat and sleep in the same place would always have a lot in common. But sometimes they don’t have anything in common AT ALL. You can have a brother who really likes ballet and a sister who thinks it’s girlie. You could probably have Darth Vader and Mickey Mouse in the same family; they’re that weird.
The trouble with death is that there is no next. There is only what was and for that I am profoundly and heartbrokenly grateful.
The trouble with death is that there is no next.