I've definitely learned that if you want to have power as a woman in Shakespeare's time, and it's still relevant today, that you have to play a different game than men play, and you have to be a lot cleverer.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
You don't have to play masculine to be a strong woman.
We're very lucky, men, that there are these fabulous parts. Women - once you've done all the parts in Shakespeare, they start running out. So you can pick and choose and find something to energise you.
All the Shakespeare parts are for young women, mostly.
I am tired of women playing action heroes like men, because they are not men. But sometimes they are written like men.
Sometimes people are like, 'Do you want to play strong women?' I don't have to play strong women in order to feel like a strong woman myself, but I do feel it's important to play characters that are complex and interesting and believable.
Of course, women have long exercised influence behind the scenes. A few thousand years ago this drove Aristotle to distraction: 'What difference does it make whether women rule or the rulers are ruled by women? The result is the same.'
I think I've really learned how important it is to empower women.
I think you need brains to do any Shakespeare with any authority. I could do Shakespeare, but not with any authority.
Shakespeare reveals human nature brilliantly: he shines a light on our instinctive desire to dominate each other.
The thing women have yet to learn is nobody gives you power. You just take it.