Im drawn to stories about ordinary people who get tangled up in an extraordinary event or idea or emotion. Im not saying I dont love films about super-people or super-doctors, but my preference is for stories about how we get through this life, what it is to be human, because Im always struggling with it myself.

Sophie Okonedo

Categorized in : Ideas Struggle Doctors

I never watch anything I do. I really would rather just not know at all how I come across.

Sophie Okonedo

knows watches

I dont like going for more than a year without doing theater. I dont mind falling flat on my face so long as I feel Im open to the possibility of something extraordinary happening.

Sophie Okonedo

long years fall

I feel as proud to be Jewish as I feel to be black

Sophie Okonedo

black proud feels

My main form of exercise is my bike. I dont have a car, so I cycle everywhere.

Sophie Okonedo

car form exercise

As a black actress, all I was offered in British film was the best friend role, whereas in television, I was offered a whole spectrum of parts.

Sophie Okonedo

actresses black roles

I do love being an actress. The other stuff, the 'fame', well - you know what? - you don't actually have to buy into it if you don't want to.

Sophie Okonedo

want stuff love-is

The photo shoot I always feel a bit embarrassed about because I don't really know what to do with myself, but they usually don't use a bad photo, so you can't worry too much. So my main concern is that I just look a bit more like myself.

Sophie Okonedo

feel myself look you

But I'll tell you what I'm really bad at: I don't concentrate on what I'm doing, so I constantly lose things. I put my purse in the fridge - I'm one of those people.

Sophie Okonedo

lose bad you people

I don't like going for more than a year without doing theatre. I don't mind falling flat on my face so long as I feel I'm open to the possibility of something extraordinary happening.

Sophie Okonedo

face feel mind long

When I do things that aren't very good, I'm worse as an actor. I don't know what I pick up - but it's something not very nice.

Sophie Okonedo

things good know nice

As a black actress, all I was offered in British film was the best friend role, whereas in TV I was offered a whole spectrum of parts.

Sophie Okonedo

friend best black best-friend

The repetition of the theatre means you've got the time to get deeply inside the person you're playing.

Sophie Okonedo

person you theatre time

I find it so all-encompassing when acting that there's no room for anything else when you're in it; you're just locked into thinking about it all day, you go to sleep with it, wake up with it, and when I come back, I really need time to recover.

Sophie Okonedo

day you sleep time

Sometimes I really need the money, really need to go straight to work. But if I had the absolute choice - money no object, my mortgage paid off - I'd really just work once or twice a year - but wouldn't everybody! - or at least do a different job sometimes.

Sophie Okonedo

job money work sometimes

When I take on a role, all I tend to do is get to know the script and ask millions of questions, and keep fine tuning what I think the character is trying to say.

Sophie Okonedo

think know trying character

Being a character actor, I can go on until I'm 70 or 80; I'm not bound to the way I look.

Sophie Okonedo

look i-can character way

I get offered loads of unusual stuff. I just don't do loads because I like staying at home a lot, and I'm a little bit lazy. I don't get that thing of going from film to film that people do. It would drive me nuts, and that level of fame is quite scary.

Sophie Okonedo

drive me home people

My life is not nuts. I hardly ever watch television, I don't go out very much, so I don't really know what's going on.

Sophie Okonedo

my-life know life television

I always try to think of positive things to say about the people I portray, as it's more helpful for me.

Sophie Okonedo

think me positive people

As a child, I certainly wanted to have hair that I could grow long and flip around. I no longer want that. My own hair that I have day to day is a fuzzy afro. And that's who I am.

Sophie Okonedo

i-am day hair long