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People say I've 'retained' my Cockney accent. I can do any accent, but I wanted other working-class boys to know that they could become actors.

I learned to change my accent; in England, your accent identifies you very strongly with a class, and I did not want to be held back.

I actually had a cockney accent before I went to drama school. It's softened up a bit.

I went to Cambridge and thought I would stay there. I thought I would quietly grow tweed in a corner somewhere and become a Don or something.

When I first left drama school, I was too posh for the working-class parts and not posh enough for the upper-class roles. You know what England is like: the gradations of accent and how you're judged by them are still there. I discovered that to get a break you have to lie about where you're from.

Going to Cambridge was a bit of a culture shock, I was a working class lass from Batley who hadn't been anywhere apart from the odd holiday on the Costa Del Sol.

I grew up in a middle class English family just outside London. I wasn't surrounded by that speedy city lifestyle, it was a little mellower.

Everyone seemed to be doing well except me and my career. And my accent was no helping me any.

I spent a lot of time in London when I was growing up and I've always picked up accents without even really meaning to. It used to get me into trouble as a child.

To cultivate an English accent is already a departure away from what you are.