Quotes By Francesca Annis

The wonderful thing about acting is you move along with your decade. The older you get, the more interesting the parts you get to play and you bring more of your personal experience to the part.

I'm an actress, not a pinup.

When I was starting out, young actresses had the studio system to protect them. Now you have a host of sharks, from your agent to your publicist to your lawyer.

Everything has changed. An interview has become such a confrontational thing. It makes you very defensive.

I am not going to share my private life with millions of people. I don't find a need to do that and nobody else close to me does either.

From one till seven, when we moved to England, I spoke only Portuguese. But I can't speak a word of it now.

I'm trying to learn to smoke, which is rather weird when everyone is trying to stop. I'm not a smoker. But my character only smokes as an affectation.

Thank God we're not like America. Everyone wants to look like they're 20. In Europe we admire grown-up women; I think men revere older women.

Exposure makes you famous, not just good work. Famous is being plastered everywhere.

The minute anyone's getting anxious I say, You must eat and you must sleep. They're the two vital elements for a healthy life.

I am not a fanatic about anything. I do what I can do when I've got the time.

You can be revered for all sorts of qualities, but to be truly charismatic is rare. Elizabeth Taylor was, for me, one of those rarities.

I don't think the media circus has ever been a shock to my life seeing as I was with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor when I was 17.

We all know now that people can look good for their age. It isn't so extraordinary, I don't know why people go on about it so much.

Roman's wife Sharon Tate had been murdered by Charles Manson the year before, but Roman had been through so much leaving the Warsaw ghetto that he was very strong and private.

Some actors get fired up by the sound of the audience. I just want to retreat.

I am pretty self-indulgent.

Everything is about class in England, whether it's upper, lower or middle. Why should that be?

I was asked to be in Vogue but I said no. I didn't want to advertise make-up. I didn't want to be seen as a sex symbol.

I consulted a Chinese herbalist and spent two weeks on an island off the coast of Zanzibar. I was away from any kind of contemporary technology.

Truly charismatic people, in my experience, don't come along very often.

I didn't choose to be an actress.

I couldn't imagine playing someone young now; it would be so boring.

I don't need a piece of paper to suggest that I can commit myself.

Each decade, I've lived in that decade, so I could easily shed the '20s, the '30s, the '40s.

Judi Dench and Ian McKellen taught me how to work hard and respect the theatre.

My parents were hugely supportive like that. I was always the best - it's so embarrassing, isn't it? I was always the best at everything.

I have yet to see a drama that puts forward women who are successful and have a family. Women are nearly always seen as victims.

I never pursued being 'famous.'

I was always going to be a dancer - I drifted into acting.