Anne-Marie Duff: Acting has given me an identity

Anne-Marie Duff thinks acting has given her an "identity".

The 49-year-old actress has had a creative streak ever since her childhood and Anne-Marie regards it as a "precious thing", admitting it\'s also served as a "defence mechanism" for her at times.

Anne-Marie said: "Having a passion feels like a superpower.

"I was teased a wee bit in my teens for being creative and a bit different but I knew what I wanted to do. I had this precious thing. That gave me a defence mechanism and sense of identity."

Anne-Marie is set to celebrate her 50th birthday later this year.

But as the landmark occasion approaches, she\'s become more philosophical about the big date.

The \'Salisbury Poisonings\' star told the Observer newspaper: "I turn 50 this year, which has always been my scary age. But I\'ll have a word with myself because everything is relative.

"You can be a miserable 23-year-old, then be pants-in-the-air happy at 50."

Meanwhile, Anne-Marie previously claimed she possesses an "unshakable self-righteousness".

The actress is a self-confessed "theatre geek" and though she doesn\'t come from an especially privileged background, she doesn\'t think it\'s inhibited her career.

The London-born star shared: "I didn\'t have that sense of entitlement because nobody in my life had come from the world in which I now inhabit, but what I had going for me was a sort of unshakable self-righteousness.

"It\'s hilarious when I think back, but I was so passionate about being an artist, about being a storyteller and making change through stories. So I had that on my side, and I was a theatre geek."

Anne-Marie also admitted to having an idealistic approach to her career during her teenage years.

She said: "I had this idea - which was perhaps a little dated by the time I was a teenager - that the power and the medicine of art had to be fought for.

"I was on my barricade, and that really helped me because it would have been very easy not to have kept going. The odds were stacked against me."