I'm absolutely as vulnerable as the next person in terms of being swept up in aspirational Instagrams. You just have to know what is fantasy and what is real. It's always good to have a diverse feed in your life and in your social media.

I'm ambitious but I'm not particularly competitive. I'll try to get roles, as I think it's healthy to go for things, but... I think there's too much competition between women already. It's important to have female solidarity and support each other and other actresses.

I've always thought of myself as more of a character actress. I've tried to do different things, but I've always been under the radar and that's how I like it. I've been really blessed to work this long and I just hope I continue to get better and better and better and better.

The British are so funny. It's like they can't believe I lived in Hackney. 'You could live in Bondi Beach. Why would you want to live in 'Ackney?' But Hackney's fantastic. I'm serious. There are so many artists there. I loved the markets, the parks, the pubs, the diversity. It was a cultural melting-pot.

Art, a book, a painting, a song, can definitely inspire change, whether it's a small change or a big change but you know there's novels I've read or a scene in a film that I've seen where I definitely inspired something and made a change or addressed an issue in my life or done something cliche like make a phone call.

My parents weren't in the arts, but we grew up in Balmain, which at that time was an artistic, bohemian suburb of Sydney. It's a lot more gentrified now. It was very working class, pubs on every corner because it's right by the water so a lot of the guys on the ships and the boats used to go and drink there. It's very posh now.

What has surprised me most about being a celebrity is the fascination with pregnant women. After I had Rocco, the paparazzi came and sought me out. I never had that before. There's a whole industry, literally, based on people having children. I guess because you're changing, putting on weight. It makes me very uncomfortable. I didn't enjoy that much at all.

The concept of growing up is so hard to quantify. What have you learned and how have you changed and how have you stayed exactly the same? As I get older, it's something I reflect on more and more. Especially as the generations go on. We wait longer to have families, we wait longer to have responsibilities. Everyone used to be married by 20 and pregnant immediately.

I think it's only through learning, and doing something uncomfortable, that you can actually change. That's why I wanted to do a play. I was so scared of it and I knew my brain would really be stretched and it was going to be hard. And it was hard and uncomfortable. Instead of naturally wanting to avoid all those feelings I need to lean toward them more. But saying that, don't ask me to make a lasagna or a Coq au vin.

The roles for women on television have historically always been stronger and that, I would say, is still true. The question is commerce. That's probably where there's a block for a lot of people, the commerce behind it. Where is the audience? And it's so clear to me that there is a huge audience for female-driven projects. People still seem to think it's a fluke when it happens. That's one of the hurdles that's still left to be jumped over.

I think people are uncomfortable seeing pregnant women, particularly with any kind of conflict. [Pregnancy is] very much a projection of life and love, but it's also very complicated. People have very complicated pregnancies. They could be accidental or people suffer depression, and that was a really interesting thing for me. And a challenging thing. I have not been pregnant. I don't know what that's like, let alone to be really conflicted about it. Acting in the film about pregnancy was a really interesting thing to do.

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