Anna Friel

Now learning a bit more about footballers I think what they need to do well, is someone who really wants to stay in the background and just be a strong support.

I've been onstage once for one performance with four days' rehearsal.

I have the most lovely, healthy bouncing baby, she was all very compact and the right size.

The doctors say it dates back to a film where I had these huge prosthetic breasts because my character was breast-feeding. The weight of them, and of the baby, did my back in.

I've always chosen incredibly different roles and things that are quite offbeat. That way you're not limited.

Being a mother gives you an incredible feeling of empowerment, you think if I can go through such pain and that level of sleep and still operate and not be grumpy you can do anything. It can be quite scary, you can't function your brain, forget your vocabulary.

I look at being an actress as being like a mummy: You're bandaged up and preserved as soon as you start making other people money.

It's really important to draw the line on what we do as actors.

Onstage, there's no hiding; you either can or can't act. There's no second take.

David is 13 years my senior and has much more experience.

People became more interested in my love life than in me, and that has a certain effect. You start to feel very empty and worth nothing, you start to become a piece in a board game you never wanted to play.

I play a character every day of my life, and I don't want to play a character as myself. They can judge me as an actress, not as a person. I'm not a spokeswoman for Anna.