Kate about smoking: “I gave up while I was pregnant. I know it’s pathetic,
but I find it exhilarating. I’m free to f*ck up my own body again.”

Josh Hartnett [Danny in Pearl Harbor] about Kate: “She’s got one of the
crassest mouths you’ll ever hear, and she sticks to it.”

“It’s sort of assumed that therefore I use a chamber pot, and wear bloomers,
and always have both feet on the floor. I was born in 1973, do you know
what I mean? I don’t feel I have a particular affinity to the eighteenth
century at all. It just happens to be that some of the movies that I’ve
done have been period, and I guess there is such a good market for those
kind of movies, that they’re the ones that are most visible.”

“As a mother, you feel much more vulnerable. And when you’re vulnerable,
you’re a much better actress.”

Have you changed since you had your baby? “In every possible way [and] for
the better. It’s wonderful to have the most important thing in the world
there first thing in the morning. And especially in this business, where
the opportunity to think everything is about you is there every day, [now]
I really know that it isn’t all about me.”

Kate about Lily: “She is the most wonderful thing that’s ever happened to
me.”

“If someone had told me years ago that sharing a sense of humour was so
vital to partnerships, I could have avoided a lot of sex!”

“No one is more enslaved than a slave who doesn’t think they’re enslaved.”

“I try and take lots of vitamins and I don’t drink. I do smoke, though,
I’d be insufferable if I didn’t smoke, you’d have to push me off a balcony
I’d be so boring”

“Everybody likes the underdog, because everybody feels like the underdog.
No matter how successful you are, you always think, no one’s being nice
enough to me!”

“With every project you do, you bring out a part of yourself, and it seems
to be quite a good way of expanding a person.”

“Hugh comes to my village and I threaten to have him poked with a pitchfork
or something, and… they’re all carrying them, you know.” (about meeting
Hugh Jackman in Van Helsing)

“On Underworld, I had to do this incredibly difficult flip and it was really
dangerous and scary and that was really no problem. The thing that flew
over the mat was, someone had to throw me some car keys and I had to catch
them and I don’t see all that well without glasses on, and I haven’t got
very good hand-to-eye.”

“I had, actually, and everyone in this business has heard that Hugh is the
nicest, nicest man in the world. Obviously, you wonder if that’s really
true or if it’s a terrifying cover-up and he’s really… And it’s true. I
mean, he’s lovely. And he’s very talented as well, which makes everybody’s
job so easy. He’s incredibly funny. He’s great with the action stuff. There’s
not all that many ‘guy’ guys these days that you can really buy as being
that type of action hero. He’s not remotely a meathead. One minute there
with a crossbow looking incredibly good, and then he’s singing songs from
Beauty and the Beast to my child. She’s got the biggest crush on him, ever,
because he’s always dressed up like Prince Charming and he’s just lovely.”
(on working with Hugh Jackman)

“If I get a script that’s set in the jungle it goes to the bottom of the
pile because I don’t think the playgrounds are gonig to be very good there!
I’m really aware of how lucky I am but I have the kind of job where I can
bring my child to work. But Lily’s liberated me in every possible way so
I don’t mind putting off the jungle.”

“Oh it’s awful being compared to such an incredibly talented woman! Both
of us are in big movies with ships sinking but it’s lovely to be compared
with her, I think she’s amazing.” (on Kate Winslet)

“If I have children I am going to make sure people don’t ask them, “Are
you going to be an actor?” My mother said I could be anything I wanted except
a policeman.”

“It’s a very difficult thing losing a parent, but I think there’s an added
complication for me, because he was so well-loved and he had this very open
charm that made people feel they had a personal relationship with him.”

“I always felt that anorexia was the form of breakdown most readily available
to adolescent girls.”

“The first thing that we shot was the subway, [where] there was no air conditioning.
It was boiling hot in there. The outfit was out of latex, I think – the
stuff they make condoms out of. If it’s hot, it gets really hot. If it’s
cold, it gets really cold. And in Budapest it goes from [blazing hot to
winter] in one day. It was kind of uncomfortable.”

“I’m a mum first, that’s my priority above anything, as much as I think
this [acting] is an amazing experience.”

“There’s such a pressure on women that we put on ourselves and everyone
else puts on us to look unrealistic and everything, but you just can’t compare
yourself to people in magazines.”

“Being a mother certainly changes your perspective.”

About Pearl Harbor: “Whatever happens, you know, whether hardly anyone goes
to see the film or if loads of people go, I’ll still feel good about having
done it.”

About filming Van Helsing: “For a start, it was freezing cold in Prague,
where we shot, and it took over three hours just to do my make-up and half
an hour to get my boots on. I’m surprised we weren’t all blue with cold
in the film!”

About Len Wiseman: “He’s just such a great guy, and we have so much in common.
Neither of us was looking for that special someone, and of course it was
awkward given the fact that me and Michael [Sheen] were splitting up, but
I think that when you find the right person it doesn’t matter how difficult
and awkward the circumstances are – you just have to be with them.”