- If it's a real passion, it's almost like a need. As a child, I got bored with my surroundings, so I would be another person for a little while. I was obsessed with Captain Planet and the Planeteers (1990) so I developed into one of the characters and told everyone that I was the character. It's like a need, you have to change. And as soon as I've finished one thing, I'm like, okay, what can I be next?
- There's a lot to be said for being in a room with a casting agent or a director. There are things you can't really replicate when you're self-taping and there's the bonus of having someone to direct you, which is extremely helpful. The benefit of self-taping is, I suppose, being on your own clock. It's certainly more relaxing to self-tape than to audition with someone in the flesh but I don't know if it's necessarily better.
- What I always think when I am asked that or have to consider that is that if I didn't get a role because I was too tall, then I don't think I wanted it anyway. My agent was never going to call me up and say, "Look, they didn't want you because you're tall," because there's nothing I can do about that. I'm sure it's happened. It's been a process in my life but I'm really proud of it. It's been a journey coming to terms with it.
- I was small once upon a time. But I was always tall for my age. At about 12, I really shot up, which I minded because I felt different to all my friends, and I slouched a lot on one hip. But my parents are dancers, so they used to come up and grab my shoulders back.
- I was a dancer for many years, and I thought I was going to be a ballerina. I once went to summer school for the Australian ballet, and I was taller than my teacher. So I remember thinking I'm gonna have to rethink this plan. I did a lot of contemporary dance until I was about seventeen and then I went to acting school.
- I mean, why don't you have a good time in high school? The age you are, you're like this unformed ball of plasma that's desperately sensitive and sort of absorbing multiple shocks of identity crisis. You couldn't pay me to be fifteen again. Awful. I've always felt like I was very odd. I definitely didn't feel like I fitted in, in a big way.
- [on the first job she auditioned for] I think it was the first job I got, which was a comedy called A Few Best Men (2011). I had three lines in it, and they cut two of them. The one that stayed in the movie is something about a sheep. I played a secretary. I was really pleased about it. I remember that my dressing room was in the back of a car; funds were scarce. But I did get to meet Olivia Newton-John and that was a big deal then because she's an Aussie legend.
- I remember when I was a teenager I used to shrink down on my hip. I was lucky that my parents were tall and they were both dancers so I was taught to really own my height. I was also really blessed that the very first role I played was in Baz's film The Great Gatsby (2013), and Baz was somebody who really loved that about me. He taught me to embrace it really early on and that was a blessing.
- [on The Night Manager (2016)] I definitely try my best not to stay in character when I'm not on set, which can be more difficult in some roles than others. Here, I found Jed quite consuming. She was probably in me a lot when I wasn't actively playing her, but we had lots of time off set to enjoy locations and spend time with each other. It was really an adventure, this job.
- If I've missed out on a part because I'm tall, that's not the excuse my agent is going to use, whether or not that's happened in the past. There's nothing I can do about that. You are the way you are, and you have to embrace that and love that about yourself.
- [on her audition for Widows (2018)] I put myself on tape while I was in Australia in my friend's garage, 'cause I am all about the glamour. I remember putting a lot of eyeliner on, and picking out some hoops. A few days later, I flew over to L.A. and read for Steve McQueen in person. I was completely terrified. Good terror, though.
- I think it's only in hindsight that you understand what was a turning point. If you actually felt the penny drop, you should probably check yourself, like, "Whoa, you're doing OK, but you're not that great." It's an interesting schism between knowing quietly inside yourself that you're worth being heard, but challenging yourself so you don't plateau. I look back at certain moments that empowered me and it's always about the people I worked with.
- The older I get and the more experience I have, the more it becomes apparent that your truest strength is to speak with your own voice. It's scary to be authentically yourself.
- [on being very tall] I realized that I couldn't do anything about it. You just have to accept it, or it will be a burden for your whole life. I am very tall and when you're a teenager, you want to be like everyone else. I used to slump a lot, it's very human at that stage to want to be part of the crowd, and not want any part of you that is sticking out.
- I always loved being on stage when I was young and doing my ballet concerts. It just became clear to me that was my happiest place. The kick you get out of that connection with a faceless crowd, nothing beats that kick, and I felt that when I was really young.
- [on meeting actor Hugh Laurie] We had breakfast together at a diner and sat for hours. I ordered a pancake stack, but he insisted on also ordering me his favorite thing on the menu - a milkshake with bananas and peanut butter. Even though I eat like a racehorse, I couldn't manage it, which he has never let me live down. He talks about how we're going back there and this time I'll drink the milkshake. He makes me laugh all the time.
- Making Steve McQueen's film Widows (2018) was a huge moment in my personal life. I can remember when I first saw Hunger (2008) and thinking, "I don't know what this is, I've never seen a film like it." There are images in that movie that never leave you. So then I meet this man and he gives me a job. Then the work starts. And the work is, "How do I rise to the challenge of what he's going to ask of me and how do I do it so that I'm proud of it myself?" You can never be in control of how someone receives your work, but you can know in the moment whether you have done yourself justice.
- Acting is a craft to me: I just think you get better the more you do it. And then the irony to that is your doing it is not in your control. If it was up to most actors, we'd work all the time and we'd always get better. But it's not in our control, so we have to wait to be given parts to do.
- I'm not a great sleeper. I try to do too many things every day. I think I get very obsessive about parts and projects. I do let them kind of consume me, and when there's something on the horizon that I want to be involved in, I just kind of hurdle myself towards it.
- I have this strange, intuitive thing where I always call people when they need me to call them. Or when I think of them, texts spring up. It's like a weird psychic relationship I have with text messaging. I also can remember dates photographically. And darn socks.
- It's a little bit strange - the life of an actor. You put your head down and you work, and when you're not working, you're still submerged under this tide of insecurity. In the early part of your career, it's predominantly panic. I'd worry, "Where is the next thing coming from?" I think I'm getting better at taking my head out of that.
- One of my earliest memories of a film being very poignant and deeply moving was Léon: The Professional (1994). At that point I didn't think that I was going to be an actor; I just remember that film having a massive influence on me.
- My parents are ex-ballet dancers, so we grew up with theater and dance. The first time I ever saw a play with words, I was watching a production of 'The Seagull.' I thought I was going to be a dancer, it was kind of the family trade, but then I realized what I loved was theater and language.
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