- Of all the things I do, acting is the thing that grabs most, but there's another level on which it strikes me as being a little silly. In the end you're dressing up and deciding to be somebody.
- I look at myself objectively and in a way I see myself as a commodity. Your name becomes somehow outside yourself. Now, when I'm at home being Mrs. Scarfe, that's when I'm most myself.
- [on Deep End (1970)'s nude shoot] Doing nudity is never easy. But having done The Masque of the Red Death (1964) in the 60s, with these awful nipple stickers that kept floating off, I knew to just go with it. People get bored looking at you. It was needed for the final scene, where John's character embraces Susan in the water. Jerzy was such a good director, I knew he'd cut it to look interesting rather than prurient. I was more worried about being able to hold my breath underwater long enough to get the shots.
- [on playing Susan in Deep End (1970)] Susan is so interesting. She's a girl using her power, enjoying her colleague's desperate longing. She's playing with him, being very cruel in a way that young people can be. They haven't experienced enough life to totally understand other people's sensitivities. She is also furious at the way older men felt they could use her, having a bit of fun on the side and all that. She won't give in to them.
- [her greatest fear] I've always been frightened of the dark. I sometimes wonder whether it stems from being away filming from the age of five. I can remember being devastatingly homesick and having a little nightlight I used to look at to reassure myself things were all right.
- [best kiss of her life] When I was on location in France, making a film called The Greengage Summer when I was 13, I was kissed by a local boy called Jean Jacques and I can still remember the thrill.
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