Emily Watson

It's quite the story because that was the point at which the SES said to me, go on your undignified way.

Literally, they said that to me when I said this was what I was doing.

Yeah.

And then everything of that upbringing had defined you.

I was sort of, I felt like I was in free fall.

And the thing that caught me was this part, acting, giving yourself over to something.

And the experience of making the film was amazing.

If being on a sort of religious path is about a search for meaning, and that's what my life in many ways had been, this feels more alive and more full of meaning than I have ever felt in strange, imaginary, not real ways.

It was an immersive process because Las Von Trier didn't... It wasn't a traditional filming process where there were lots of set-ups and artificial sense of...

You know, the camera's here and you're over there and they're changing the shot and you're waiting around.

And it was a handheld camera that was just in the scene like it was a character in the scene observing you all the time.

So you must have been very immersed in it then.

We were very immersed and the camera was just like another person.

It was your friend.

I was so lucky to have them as role models in my first film because both actors who care passionately about everything that matters and really don't give a toss about the things that don't, and they were, I couldn't have asked for better role models.

Well, first of all, it went to the Cannes Film Festival, which I'd heard of, I was aware of, but I had no idea what kind of a deal that was.

Found myself walking up the steps at Cannes in a Dior dress,

And then going into the cinema and watching myself naked the size of a tower block.

And then this incredible response to the film.

I mean, really very, very powerful, overwhelming response that I didn't necessarily understand because it wasn't part of my world.