'The English Patient' was a huge turning point in my career and my life; it became this huge thing. But the whole Oscar build-up got completely out of control; I spent more time talking about that film than I spent making it!
I'm not at all fed up with British films, but I am fed up with playing upper-class people.
Exoticism can give you an edge: it makes people assume you're cleverer than you are and gives you the upper hand.
People will now go to films with subtitles, you know. They're not afraid of them. It's one of the upsides of text-messaging and e-mail. Maybe the only good thing to come of it.
I just get so fed up with seeing the same things written about me. If I see the words 'ice queen' attached to me, I feel like banging my head against the wall. There's this perception that I can only be in a film if I have a glass of champagne in my hand and a stately home in the background.
French is a foreign language, but I've been speaking it since I was 18 so it's second nature to me.
