] Sophie Thompson on Ophelia:

] "She has a great deal of spirit - otherwise Hamlet would never had loved her - but her reactions to him are fuelled by fear and insecurity. Her conversation with Hamlet during the Players' scene is not made up of clever-clever wisecracks but is full of desperation. She has to be at a social occasion when her guts are spilling out - she is trying desperately to keep control by doing ordinary things while her world falls apart around her."