Lesley Manville Quotes

Lesley Manville

Profession : Actress

Birth : March 12, 1956

If I go away, I take a little picture of my son. It's in a frame with a speaker, and he recorded a birthday message for me when he was nine or 10. I can't listen to it without filling up.

Lesley Manville

I'm a big fan of Edouard Vuillard, so I'd like anything by him - particularly a painting called 'Madame Hessel on the Sofa.' His work is realistic without being literal: I can really imagine what Madame Hessel is thinking.

Lesley Manville

I like to personalise my dressing room, have a cover for the bed and, if it is a long run, a few cushions and a teapot - a little pot for one.

Lesley Manville

The more you've lived, the more you've experienced, you emotionally know a lot more, especially if you haven't had a regular, straightforward kind of life.

Lesley Manville

My mother always cooked, every day, proper food. We didn't have fast food. It was probably pretty much meat and two veg, but as time went on and new things came into the culture, she embraced all of that. I grew up with mealtimes and sitting around the table with proper cooking and eating.

Lesley Manville

One of the significant things that's happened, which shouldn't be looked at as lightly as it might sound, is that women over 45, over 50, are now allowed to be sexy.

Lesley Manville

It gets easier as you get older because life deals its particular hand, and our experiences get deeper, richer, more profound. When I gave birth to my son, something happened. It is a huge thing for a woman: a whole set of emotions you never had before arrives, and a love you never had before in your life is now on tap.

Lesley Manville

There isn't a spare minute in the day. I have spent my life doing everything. I work. I go home. I do the shopping. I cook. Then there's the laundry and the dog. Most of my life, I have been a working mother. And even when I wasn't, I still did it all.

Lesley Manville

When I was eight, it was clear I was a very good singer.

Lesley Manville

I had two starts, really. The first was going to the Italia Conti stage school, aged 15. I'd gone to sing, but one day I found myself doing an improvisation and thought, 'Oh God, I quite like this acting thing.' The second start was meeting Mike Leigh when I was 22. He showed me I could play people that weren't like me.

Lesley Manville

A lot of the actors I knew threw in the towel when they became mothers. I couldn't do that financially, and I didn't want to - but I was knackered all the time.

Lesley Manville

Stage is the ultimate test; I like watching established screen actors on stage to see if they can really do it. But it's great to have a healthy mixture of the two. Film is so technical: there's something very particular about the relationship between you and the camera. It took a long time for me to get good on film.

Lesley Manville

I quite like that people tend not to know my name. I remember being at the Cannes film festival for 'All or Nothing.' I looked very different in the film - I had a little greasy bob and no makeup. I went to a dinner after the screening, and everyone completely ignored me. I got a real buzz out of that.

Lesley Manville

I, Lesley, I like looking nice. I like doing my hair and wearing makeup and wearing nice clothes. But I don't care what my characters look like.

Lesley Manville

When I make films, I work with Mike Leigh, who's the most prolific director in England.

Lesley Manville

It's not just about young people - there are films being made that deal with women getting older. That's a huge bonus, and here in America, that's a huge step forward.

Lesley Manville

I have been devoted to my son, and there have been lots of jobs in the past that I haven't done because I didn't want to be away from him.

Lesley Manville

I've got two older sisters who I'm very close to. And my son's grown up with a big sense of family around him.

Lesley Manville

I completely think of myself as sexual. Completely and utterly. Probably more so than I did when I was 30. I don't know why. I'm very comfortable with how I look. I'm absolutely committed to never having anything done to my face. I would never let anyone near me with a Botox needle.

Lesley Manville

People say, 'I know you, don't I?' And they expect me to say I know them from their daughter's school or something - they can't place me. And I love that. Long may it last.

Lesley Manville