Gina mckee

I'm extremely self-critical. Although I try not to be ridiculous about it, wearing horsehair shirts and all that. It's a private exercise I don't necessarily share with other people.

A distant cousin sent me some genealogy report on my father's side, and it's sort of what I suspected. Coal miners for generations... four or maybe five generations.

I think it's nice to be able to make a product, put it out there and let other people decide what they think.

The National Youth Theatre did one very simple but incredible thing for me: it made me realise I had choices.

The first time I came to London on my own, I was 15. I was absolutely oblivious to so many things. I had no expectations, no fears. I just came to do a National Youth Theatre season one summer. It was...

Being an actor somehow can be a perverse extension of that feeling we generally all have as children, that feeling of wanting to please. Of course you're looking for affirmation, encouragement.

Where I grew up in the North-east, the community there, and the way people relate to one another, goes very deep. But I don't define myself as a Northerner in that I don't live in the North.

I think I'm very open and friendly and warm.

My instinct is probably one of the strongest assets I've got, workwise.

I don't feel comfortable talking about my private life, and some people in my private life don't feel comfortable about me talking about it. So I don't.