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The truth is that from the age of 14, I felt about 40, and for that reason, I felt that I would never succeed as an actor until my looks caught up with my actual age.

As you get older and ease your way into being a character actor you have to be comfortable with where you are in life and career, and I'm very comfortable with what I'm doing - working on projects I'm proud of.

Look at a guy like Ian McKellen, who is eighty or whatever, and he's just loving his work, and you can see that in the work. That defines what type of actor you are. And what kind of people want to work with you. And whether you can do this job for a long, long time.

When you're a young actor, there's this pressure to rush. But I hope to be doing this into my sixties and seventies, so I'd prefer to take my time.

Being an actor does make you aware of your age.

I've always been short and stocky. So when I got into repertory theatre after graduation, I found myself doing character roles: because of my deep voice, shape and height, I was playing 40-year-old, 50-year-old roles at the age of 23.

I hope to be still acting when I'm 70 on TV, film and theatre.

I think in the acting world you either manage that transition to older roles, or you stick with what you've always done and then discover nobody can bear you doing it as an older person.

I would hate to be 65 and think, 'What if I had tried to be an actor?'

I'm 40 next year and I'm very well aware that where I am now, it becomes a bit of a wilderness for actresses.