Emily Mortimer

Emily: I am pale, I smoke cigarettes and I'm allergic to physical activity. But just because I get cast as the sweet innocent doesn't mean that I necessarily am that way. When I was little, I didn't want to be an actress to delve into another consciousness - I wanted to wear fancy clothes and go to parties.

Emily: (as a child) I did my homework and didn't go out much, and had a very highly developed kitsch fantasy life where I dreamed of being a dancing girl.

Emily: Doing press is like eating a McDonald's: while it's going on it's vaguely enjoyable - you're seduced by your own vanity and taking yourself rather seriously - but immediately afterwards you feel sick.

Emily: Acting can be much more exposing with your clothes on - if you're in a comedy and you're not funny, or if you're meant to be in love and it just looks cheesy.

Emily: (on being a mother to Sam) I am a good mother and I feel proud about it. I know I'm going to f--- up and already have a bit. I thought I would be twisted up with worry about having a baby, but I just very quickly got more interested in him than in whether or not I was being good.

Emily: I think that you can get more passionate about somebody the longer you're with them and the more you know them and the more you go through together. Being married is definitely better than it's cracked up to be I think.

Emily: (on her "Transsiberian" co-star) Woody [Harrelson] and I saw eye to eye on practically nothing. He's a confirmed vegan, a hippie, and incredibly into organics and health and very sporty. I'm a confirmed meat-eater. My grandparents were pig farmers, so I'm completely besotted by bacon.

Emily: It's good working a lot but you can reach rock bottom. It's like being an alcoholic. At some point you just think, 'Ugh, that's too much.' I want to get to a point where I can pick and choose and do things that are fascinating when they come along.

Emily: I'm constantly being told I'm not sexy enough and I should show my boobs more. I've been told that I've got good breasts and I should make them more apparent when I go into meetings. But I don't suit that sort of thing and can't carry it off. I've also been told to dye my hair and get my teeth whitened. This is a weird, weird job.

Emily: I was terribly shy when I was growing up, I really wasn't confident with other people and I think I was always afraid of fucking up or not being this very cool, amazing person that I wanted to be.

Emily: One of my biggest fears is being stuck, of being someone who can be defined in one sentence.

Emily: (in a December 2004 interview) I want any excuse to come home. My dad is not a spring chicken any more. If anyone says, go buy a postage stamp in London, I'll go and do it.

Emily: Acting was something I pretended I didn't want to do as I was growing up.

Emily: I also think that marriage is much more of an exciting adventure than it credits for I think. And I love that it changes all the time and it's fascinating actually being with someone, like in some ways you think of it as the end of something or you're taught to think of it as the end of something but it's the beginning of something completely different.

Emily: (on Los Angeles, California) It's the beauty parlour at the end of the universe, with bizarre, no-season weather, just sun stupidly shining down every day, and people almost in denial of the darker side of everyday life. You know: if you take a pill and go to yoga and drink wheatgrass every morning, you might not die.