Thank you so much, it means the world to me, to get this award from my peers. I adore what I do, I think it's the most wonderful profession in the world. And I want to share it with my collaborators, every single one of them, on the amazing experience that was Lion in Winter.

It was daunting taking on a role word-for-word that was made iconic by the great Katharine Hepburn, who won an Oscar for it.

But I have to tell you a story, very quickly.

When I was a senior in college at William & Mary, I was painting scenery backstage, and the Dick Cavett interview with Hepburn - the only time she was ever on television - happened to be playing. And I knew that I'd wanted to be an actress, but something happened to me that night, watching her. And I said to myself, "If that's who you want to be - do it!" And the next day, I went to the office of the head of the theatre department; I asked to be nominated for a series of national auditions; I ended up that fall with my first job as an understudy on Broadway.

And later, when Hepburn was celebrated at the Kennedy Center Honours, I was one of the group of artists that helped celebrate her, and she came backstage, which was very rare. And I was coerced into telling her this story. And so I kind of stuttered it, you know, about how she had had a real impact and was the reason why I got my first job. And days later, I received this letter - which hangs on a wall in my house in a place of honour - and what she wrote to me was this:

"I'm glad I persuaded you, when you were a mere child, to join this terrible profession - this terrifying profession - and, let's face it, this delicious way to spend your life."

Thank you very much.