I am someone who worries a lot. I'm always worrying 'what if?' Now I'm a mum - there will be worries for the rest of my life, but they're not about me anymore.

I try to eat healthily, but I love fried food and bad things. Give me a plate of bread, some oil and salt and I'm happy. But you can't eat like this all the time.

I can cook a little bit. I can cook a few Spanish dishes. But, in movies, it looks like I cook much better than I cook.

The most difficult thing in the world is to start a career known only for your looks, and then to try to become a serious actress. No one will take you seriously once you are known as the pretty woman.

There are so many designers that I love, and I'm so lucky that I get to work with so many of them and sometimes spend time with them. As an actress, you get to go to these events and wear their things - it's fun, but it is what it is. I don't put a lot of time into it, but I respect what they do.

In my everyday life, I just wear jeans, t-shirts and trainers - if I can go barefoot, that's even better. But for the events I have a stylist, and in two hours we have selected a whole outfit.

One thing that I am proud of: I am really capable of laughing at myself.

I am not somebody who likes to give advice, or anything like that, unless it's my closest friends or family.

I want my son - and my kids, if I have more - to grow up in a way that is as anonymous as possible. The fact that his father and I have chosen to do the work that we do doesn't give anybody the right to invade our privacy.

Maybe I'll make one movie a year, maybe two, but it's not going to be more than that because I have other priorities now.

In 'Twice Born' I play my character in her 20s, 30s and 50s. For the fifty year old scenes, I had some prosthetics; it was interesting to see how I'm going to look when I'm fifty-five or so. I actually saw similarities between my grandmothers and my mother.

I love Spanish food. My diet is the Mediterranean diet, which is good food. I eat well.

Sometimes you will do a close-up for a scene in the morning where you are totally distraught, then shoot the rest of that scene seven hours later. How do you hang on to that feeling all day without burning up, without going so far that you have nothing left to give when the cameras roll again?

Unfortunately, I am very aware of editing and I look at the monitor too much. Sometimes the monitor can become your worst enemy because you can, consciously or unconsciously, start editing yourself.

I don't know why, but women in a hair salon share their deepest secrets.

I never want to lie about my age. If I look around at the actresses I admire, they are all women who have not fought growing older, but embraced it and been proud of it - women like Sophia Loren or Audrey Hepburn.

For 'Vicky Cristina Barcelona,' for example, Woody Allen is one of the greatest American directors, and we really had a very good working relationship. We understand each other really well. He gave me one of the best opportunities somebody has ever given me in my career.

My favourite actress is Meryl Streep. Oh, and Anna Magnani.

I have stepped off the relationship scene to come to terms with myself. I have spent most of my adult life being 'someone's girlfriend', and now I am happy being single.

Madrid is what I call home, but also the States.

As a kid, I had a lot of energy; but the ballet lessons made me calm - this pleased my mother.

I only drive in movies. I know that's very weird to hear for an American. I have a weird relationship with it. I know how to drive, but I never went to take the test.

Ever since I was a little girl, I've worried too much. It always bothers me because sometimes you end up worrying more about the worry and you are not resolving things that are right there in front of you. I have been like that all my life, and it's hard to change.

I really like the Caribbean. Anyplace in the Caribbean. I get there, and I feel like a monkey - the perfect state.