I’m struck by the amount of work you’re doing at the moment. Your new project Choke is about to open over here and you’ve got four films coming out in 2009. Was this a conscious decision? To speed up, rather than slow down?

I’d say that in the past 10 years or so, I slowed down voluntarily, and didn’t take so many chances. I think I may have got a bit picky. One can conduct one’s career just looking for the good things, the cream. But that means a lot of the time you don’t work as much as you’d like.

More recently, the challenge was to do parts that maybe I wouldn’t have done a few years ago, and if one of these choices isn’t stellar, it won’t be the end of the world. I signed up to do Medium with Patricia Arquette last season. It was very challenging but very good for me, and I got into the swing of things. Work breeds work.

Let’s go back to your childhood, which was extraordinary. Your father was a famous director and your mother a prima ballerina – both intense, demanding professions. What impact did that have on you?

I remember a conversation I had with my father, or rather he had with me, at about the age of 12. The subject was dilettantism, a word that I hadn’t heard until that point. My dilettantism. What he perceived as the possibility of my future dilettantism. It was obviously a thing to be afraid of – that would cause you to dabble in the arts and never take a profession seriously. I didn’t really know what he was talking about at the time.

But as a result, I have a strong work ethic and feel passionately about it. I love my work and wouldn’t give it up for anyone or anything. It’s the thing that’s mine, that nobody can touch. It’s kept me self-sufficient all these years. It keeps me sane.

You say your father was frequently absent, and your mother died in a car crash when you were just 17. That must have been unspeakably painful.

In a way I feel like I didn’t get enough of either of them. My mother’s death was profoundly shocking. I’m still coming to terms with it. I remember being astounded when I turned 40, and realised I’d outlived her. She died at the age of 39, so that was a shock for me, because I still felt madly unformed, even at 40, even at middle age.

(For the full article see the November 2008 issue of Psychologies Magazine)