Polly Walker

If I wasn't an actress, I'd like to cook. I'm pretty obsessed by it. Rome was great in that sense, going to amazing cookery bookshops. No wonder their food is good because the quality and wide range of their produce is so good. It's not fair, really.

Sometimes Italian fashion, especially in the summer, is bright and gaudy and tarty, so I'd be buying these bright pink and bright orange things, and when I got home, I'd just go, 'What was I thinking? I can't wear this!'

I was married to an Italian, and my son was born there. I've got lots of connections there, and I lived in the north, in the country about an hour outside of Milan, for quite a few years. I speak fluent Italian.

We exist in this weirdly schizo culture, where sex is everywhere in the media, and yet, at the same time, you don't sit down and have a conversation about what you did in bed last night with your friends. Despite the ubiquity of sex, it's still a taboo when it comes to day-to-day conversation.

Set your sights high, the higher the better. Expect the most wonderful things to happen, not in the future but right now. Realize that nothing is too good. Allow absolutely nothing to hamper you or hold you up in any way.