I think I always disappoint people, because they always expect someone very pretty. Very done. There`s so much pressure to be thin, blonde and busty. I`m skinny, but even I couldn`t fit into some of the clothes there (in L.A.)!" In a funny kind of way, I think you create it yourself. I think it`s much better to go with the flow and embrace your body, whatever shape it is, and just be happy.

I tried college for three months but I was desperately unhappy. I just wanted to perform. I was getting straight As but I had no friends and cried every day.

I`m not a social person, so I really have very few friends in the business.

I`m doing a film now with a lot of guys as well, so at the end of that I will be growing a beard.

[On turning her back on Hollywood blockbuster adventure films]: I can`t imagine ever doing another one. I had five months off from Pirates during the summer last year, when I made Silk and Atonement, and it was so great - I want to be able to explore emotions in smaller projects. That`s not to say I won`t suddenly read a big Hollywood blockbuster and go `oooh, that might be good...` But I haven`t yet.

I don`t read anything and I don`t look at newspapers. It`s too weird, so I`m not really aware of hype anywhere.

It`s not everyday you get to do a pirate movie, you might as well go for it.

There are pressures to conform to a certain type, tall, blonde, thin, big breasts, you know - The Type.

I`m incredibly self-conscious about my body.

The Celts would`ve been fighting naked and painted blue, but there was no way I was going to do that. Having a bare midriff and running around killing people was fun. But you don`t want to see boobs bumping up and down on a battlefield. It would be distracting On modesty over historical accuracy in King Arthur (2004).

If I have a dark side, I haven`t discovered it yet. How very boring of me.

It`s all about perfection, isn`t it?

Nudity frightens me, but I will do it when I think it`s necessary - or when it makes me giggle.

A newspaper here voted me one of the scruffiest people in Britain. I`m quite proud of that. It`s completely true.

The most exercise I do is turning on the television.

[Guinevere] "She`s very manipulative and calculating and would use whomever to get her own way, whether it was with her sexuality or by killing someone. It felt very empowering playing her!"

I`m naturally an extremely lazy person, so if someone did everything for me, I really think I would do nothing at all.

I`m dyslexic, and at six years old they realized I couldn`t read a word and had been fooling them. My mum said to me: `If you come to me with a book in your hand and a smile on your face every day through the summer holiday, I`ll get you an agent.`

The most fantastic date I`ve ever had was going bowling, because I don`t bowl and I`m awful.

To be honest, I`d sooner be with my mates having a pint.

I suppose I`m more of a tomboy than the girly-girl, which is why I can`t walk on stilettos very well.

I think every girl is looking for her Mr. Darcy.

I don`t court attention, which is why I`ve never been to nightclubs like Chinawhite.

When I was about 5 I think, I desperately wanted to be a pirate and have the hat and everything.

People said to me yesterday, `How does it feel to be anorexic?` I had no idea that I was. I can safely say that I`m not. I`ve got a lot of experience with anorexia. My grandmother and great-grandmother suffered from it. In a way it`s good that it`s out there and people are talking about it. It`s quite interesting because it`s normally high-achieving women who suffer from it because, I guess, they`re control freaks.

I do remember, at six, thinking I should be earning my own living. My mum says I was born 45.

People send over dresses for me to wear to these functions, but I often feel like a 5-year-old in my mom`s clothes. So I just wear jeans and a top every single time.

Talking about her possibly being anorexic: "I`ve got a lot of experience with anorexia. It was in my family. My grandmother, and my great-grandmother suffered from it and I had a lot of friends at school who suffer from it so I don`t think it`s anything to be taken lightly."

Producers usually hire a stylist for me when I got to premieres because they think I`m so pathetic.

Last year I went to the Vanity Fair party after the Oscars and I stood in the corner and had a lot of champagne. It`s very, very scary.

There`s no individuality on the red carpet. That`s why I loved Björk`s Oscar swan dress. I wish I had the courage.

I paint and draw, but very badly.

I always feel like I`m the one with everything to prove.

Three years after that I was diagnosed as dyslexic, and we struck a deal: I was allowed to start acting on condition that I would read constantly and get good grades at school.

In LA, I`m twice the size- height and everything else- of most of the other actresses who are going for an audition.

I`ve always been quite tomboyish.

I don`t like parties very much. I`m not a very sociable being.

I don`t read any magazines or newspapers any more, because I find it really scary and I get really scared when I`m followed by photographers. I have, on many occasions, broken down in tears because I find it terrifying. I dropped out of school when I was 16 so there`s nothing else that I can do.

I don`t do a thing to keep fit, I just cannot make myself work out. My abs are just luck - my mum has good ones so it`s a family trait.

We`re all fans of cinema, you know. Forget about being an actor, I love watching films. I really do. That`s what I love doing, as a hobby. I find the whole process fascinating, as do my parents, they go to the cinema a lot.

Every part I`ve ever got, I always thought it was completely ridiculous that I was up for it. With Pirates, I only packed for a week because I was sure that I was going to get sacked. I thought they`d made the hugest mistake.

The fact that we haven`t focused on the love triangle between Arthur, Lancelot and Guinevere was actually one of the things that made me want to do the film. It`s interesting to tell it in a completely new way.

I don`t think about nutrition. The very thought of a diet makes me want chips and ice cream. And I just hate going to the gym. I cannot stand it.

"It was part of the job. There`s no point in being embarrassed about it, because that is the name of the game. It was just another day at the office. A very nice day at the office." [On the love scene with Clive Owen in King Arthur (2004)]

I`d wanted to get stuck into the action on Pirates of the Caribbean and I asked Jerry [Jerry Bruckheimer] if I could have a sword fight in that, and he more than made up for it in King Arthur (2004) by giving me axe fights, knife fights, and all the rest of it. I absolutely loved it. It was like being 11 years old and in the playground again.

It`s also strange when people recognise you in the street and they know you but you don`t know them. It`s a little weird, but nothing to complain about.

I`m a bit of a tomboy so the action stuff was fantastic.

I don`t have a problem with my body. I`m not just going to strip off all my clothing, but if the part calls for it and I don`t think there`s any way round, I`m absolutely fine.

Acting requires me to be very observant, which means being able to sit in cafes for hours and watch people.

(On actresses living in Hollywood) I take my hat off to actresses there, particularly the young ones, because the emphasis is on trying to find perfection. But I think it`s the imperfections in people that make them perfect. I don`t find perfect faces very interesting.

In this business, fame lasts for a second. You can be blown up and be blown down. People keep losing interest in faces because new ones come along every single second. I`m one at the moment. Tomorrow I won`t be. That`s cool. I`m not saying that when it does end, I`ll be like, `Yay! It`s ending.` But I`ll move on and do something else because that`s what has to be done. It`s about survival. If you`re sad about it, then you`re in the wrong job.

As a moviegoer and a woman, I want to see that, so it`s great to get to play parts like that. But Guinevere is a terrifying creature. If I saw a battle, I`d run in the other direction. I`m not strong in that way at all. But I`m certainly someone who has always known what I wanted and tried to get it.

I don`t think I can call myself an actress yet. I just don`t think my skill level is that high. I hope that with every job it gets better. But until I`m good, I can say I`m trying to be an actor, but I don`t think I`ve completely made it.

(On her conception) I was a bet. My mum was desperate for another child, and my dad told her that the only way they could afford to have one was if she sold a play. So Mum wrote When I Was a Girl, I Used to Scream and Shout.

I know for a fact the work is going to dry up, and people will get bored of me. That`s not bitterness, just the truth.

on making Love Actually (2003): "We had kind of done all our wedding and we felt like the stars of the show, then sudden you`ve got all these other people with story lines and you think: Excuse me, I know you`re Alan Rickman, but get out of my film, please, thank you."

When in doubt, faint.

"Katharine Hepburn and Vivien Leigh are my heroes. Not because of their ability, but because of their perseverance".

I`m a tomboy beanpole? I can`t use a computer, so maybe I`m a bit out of the loop. I don`t know whether to be flattered or not flattered. The beanpole bit, is that good? Can you be a sexy beanpole?

(at a photo shoot) "I`m a hooker in these pictures, and I must be a high priced one because I`m staying at the Ritz, which is good."

(On "The View" (1997)) "I met Barbara Walters backstage and didn`t know who she was. She`s an American phenomenon, I was told later. I`m just sooo English".

(on shoes) "I see a pair of shoes I adore, and it doesn`t matter if they have them in my size. I buy them anyway."

Do you know that on all the sets I`ve been on, nobody has ever made a pass at me?

(After being called the new Hayley Mills) "That was cruel! Nothing against Hayley Mills, but I`m trying to be cool here. I`m trying to be edgy".

on Bend It Like Beckham (2002): "I thought there would be doubles--stunt doubles--and I would just run in for the close-ups, but unfortunately they didn`t have the money for that."

I`ve always been a snob about qualifications.

There`s no point having an 18th birthday in America.

I feel less blonde now and, er, smarter!

(About kissing Orlando Bloom in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)) There were these teen-aged girls off-cam, and they were ready to kill me because I kissed Orlando Bloom!

About wearing a corset on Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003): "I had a Scarlett O`Hara thing, she gets her waist down to 18 and a half inches--so I thought I would try that. For five minutes, it`s fantastic--you have this tiny waist and fantastic cleavage, but oxygen deprivation is a big problem!"

The problem for me was that by being in the film the magic was broken. I loved the first Star Wars film and my mum was really into it too, that`s why I took the part. But the Force wasn`t there when we were filming it, and they didn`t have real light sabres, which annoyed me.