With the role of Pamela being crucial to every scene in ME MYSELF I, Pip Karmel and producer Fabien Liron, had very specific ideas about the sort of actress who could pull it off.

"Because it is such an enormous role," said Pip, "it was always me main preoccupation to have somebody the audience could relate to. This is a gentle comedy and it only works if the audience senses the honesty of the characters. We needed somebody who was real, who could also play the comedy without resorting to wacky caricature."

"And of course, we needed someone we could love."

After an extensive casting process that spread its net from England to Scotland and to Australia, Rachel Griffiths was the shining light who managed to tap into every required characteristic.

"As an actress she has the rare ability to be emotionally dramatic and comic, and this film needed the whole range. In Rachel, we found that."

"Rachel gave something to the role. She totally committed to the character, she took Pamela on with enormous energy and there wasn't a moment that she let go of her."

"She's gorgeous without being Miss Perfection and that's what's lovable about her," she said.