Top 30 Ashley Jensen Quotes

I did a lot of theatre when I started out. It was the Lyceum, the Citz, the Tron and the Traverse. I came to London and did the Royal Court, the National, ‘King Lear’ at the Manchester Royal Exchange. I did little bits of comedy, like ‘Rab C Nesbitt,’ but I wasn’t predominantly about comedy.

My mother has only just got over the fact that I will never play Shrek’s sister – because of the Scottish accent, she thought I’d be perfect.

I just wanted to be an actress. It never occurred to me that I could become famous, because I’m not one of those people who’s automatically going to be the lead. I always saw myself as the mate.

I missed Britain. I’m from here and I never aspired to go to L.A. – it sort of happened by default. I loved being there. I found it a little bit difficult at first, but I found my way.

I was Lady Gaga way before her time. I had a wee kettle for a handbag. Didn’t everyone, at some point? One of the teachers used to call me Dame Flora Robson because I had this big, long Victorian skirt. And I wore a Peruvian hat. It was the 1980s – people were wearing lots of lace.

I know what I look like. I’m not a babe who’s automatically going to be the leading-lady type. I think I would always be cast as the friend. I probably tend to look crap more often than I look good. I like messing around and pulling funny faces and doing funny walks.

I do quite like sightseeing. I like churches, museums, galleries and all that stuff. I love the smell of a church in Italy or the smell of an old greasy spoon somewhere. I like markets and little funny shops in the backstreets of Florence.

I always knew I wanted to be an actor, certainly from the age of eight or nine. I think when you know what you want to do, you’re very lucky because you’ve got a focus.

Nothing is forever, and I do still talk about when I’ll come back to Britain. I’d love to come back and do a nice big juicy period drama. I don’t understand it when people suddenly turn their back on Britain or Scotland. I’m so aware of it, and it’s so much a part of who I am.

To be honest, I probably wouldn’t have gone to Hollywood if I hadn’t been offered ‘Ugly Betty’ because I was a wee bit feart. But you have to make yourself frightened. That’s what keeps you alive.

I’m not a big one for sitting by the pool doing nothing.

I think it’s strange when people my age and younger get surgery. Somebody’s got to play old people.

I’ve always been quite thrifty. I can’t bear to spend hundreds of pounds on designer clothes. I shop in second-hand shops in Portobello Road and go to Sue Ryder.

I think because I did become a well-known face in my thirties and not in my twenties, I was pretty settled in my boots and I knew who I was. And I think there’s a sort of Scottish thing, too, where you don’t take yourself too seriously, and you don’t get carried away with your own sense of self-importance.

I wanted to live where I could pop to the bar that Humphrey Bogart took Lauren Bacall to, or the little restaurant where Charlie Chaplin had a booth.

I don’t read tabloids. I just don’t go there.

The only time I’ve played a real baddy was when I was Regan in ‘King Lear.’

My mum Margaret was a single parent, but though life was a bit of a struggle she gave me every encouragement.

I have just been working with Maggie Gyllenhaal, who is also a mum, on a movie called ‘Hysteria.’ She is everywhere because of the nature of film work. Not that I’m name dropping or anything like that. I have to pinch myself when I remember who I’ve been working with.

In a world of iPads and emails, nothing has really changed in the theatre. You still get in an hour early, do your wardrobe, put an old pair of tights under your wig, and you have, ‘This is your call, Miss Jensen’. I got exhilarated by that.

I’ve reached a point in my life where going to the supermarket is a day out.

I want to go to Lapland and see Father Christmas, and now I’ve got a child, so I’ve got an excuse. Also, I’d like to go to South America especially as I’m now living in that part of the world, in L.A. now. And I must get down to Mexico.

Two days before I got the audition for ‘Extras,’ I was offered a theatre role, and I asked my husband, Terry, whether I should take it or not. He said, ‘No, wait and see what else comes in.’ Lo and behold, along came ‘Extras.’ Now that was lucky!

Everything has happened so fast for me that I sometimes can’t take it all in. I’m a huge ‘Friends’ fan, and meeting Matthew Perry in L.A., where he was as keen to talk to me about ‘Extras’ as I was to him about ‘Friends,’ was amazing.

I made some flippant remark about not wanting my son to grow up with an American accent, and the next thing I knew, there were people in America suggesting I head back to Britain if I was unhappy at such a prospect.

People are always asking me if I work out, but to be honest, I’m doing very little at the moment. The only time I really go to the gym is if I’m staying in a hotel.

I don’t even think places like the National Youth Theatre (NYT) are necessarily about wanting to be an actor when you grow up. They’re about meeting people from different backgrounds and different religions and different cultures, and mixing with people that you wouldn’t ordinarily meet.

I think that children that are acting are always pretty savvy anyway because you’re conducting yourself around adults a lot of the time, aren’t you? But there is this worry now that children just want to be famous.

I take my hat off to mums who have lots of kids. Anyone that says being a mum isn’t a full-time job has obviously never had any.

Nobody is more individual than you, so be confident with who you are and what you have to offer because everybody has got things to offer.