Julia Sawalha

I think it's healthy to be insecure, to have nerves.

Actors think they're far more important than they are, and that can only lead to hurt. People with colossal self-importance have very far to fall.

I wouldn't miss the fame. I don't go out hunting for it. I try to avoid it and to slip into the background wherever I go.

I love finding things. I love digging around in the dirt. It's part of my Virgo. It's like acting, really. You're always searching around for something and finding little hidden treasures.

It's not so much that I'd like to play a raunchy character, but I would like to play someone my own age. I'm always playing down, but I guess it's good because it means I've got a longer life in my acting career.

Ever since I can remember feeling love for my parents, I've been frightened of losing them.

I'm not much of a baby freak - I like them when they're older.

When you come out of your teens, you think you're sussed. But you don't know who you are at 22. You're constantly trying to fit in. You get a little lost.

I just love doing costume dramas; I am very lucky, as I see myself as a part-time time traveller.

I don't get inoculations or take anti-malaria tablets when I go abroad; I take the homeopathic alternative, called 'nosodes', and I'm the only one who never goes down with anything.

It's very hard to dramatise something factual and not make it look overdone, but also not to make it look so under-dramatised that it's dull.

It distresses me when I take my seven-year-old nephew out. I cook healthy food, and he wants to go to McDonald's. He doesn't even like the food; he just wants the toys, the Happy Meals. I can't stand to see people walking down the street eating fast food.

I'm terrible at solving things. I'm really bad and haven't got any sort of lateral thinking capacity. I am your perfect audience for a mystery. I love that kind of stuff. I'm always on the edge of my seat.

I'd hate to be a sex symbol. Because you're always having to live up to an image. I haven't got time to sit around doing my nails.

I love a bit of glamour - who doesn't? - but I probably wouldn't be able to pull it off.

I'm on a constant path of self-discovery and change. I'm trying to become a better person, a nicer person. I love therapy - it's brilliant.

What keeps me awake at night? Just about everything! I worry that I am not there for my family enough. So what keeps me awake at night is general guilt!

There is nothing more special than a love of a child, and I love the fact I am an auntie.

Being a mum is something that's never bothered me too much. I have never felt a strong need to have children, but I am not averse to it either.

It's a tremendous feeling walking on to a set with a live audience and making them laugh, but I love drama, and I love drama where there's the ability to bring comedy into it because in a lot of tragic circumstances in life there is comedy to be had.