Quote

If my performance touches someone or helps someone understand themselves a little better or gives them a laugh, I feel like I gave them something. I want to touch people's lives and bring them along with me.

When you were on stage, you could be absolutely open about your emotions and indulge them and express yourself in a way that - in real life - I wasn't doing.

As a young performer, I didn't know that you can have a great time playing someone in terrible crisis. The more you know it's not real, the deeper you can go into it. And the easier it is to let it go when it's done.

I want to express myself in a different way. I have a performing inclination.

And at the same time, you are of course a performer, but it's very important that you understand that your role as a performer is to get the best performance from those wonderful colleagues that you have the chance to work with.

What do you say when someone has truly inspired you? How do you express to an artist how deeply their work has affected you?

I was constantly being told I shouldn't talk so much about how I was feeling. They seemed to think I was giving too much away to my competitors. Showing signs of weakness. But I've always thought that was rubbish.

You can't but know that if you can capture the emotions of the audience as well as their minds, the play will work better, because it's a narrative art form.

I consider each performance to be an intimate conversation between me and the audience members.