I was back at the National Theatre yesterday for the press launch of the Cultural Olympiad. I say 'back' because my first acting job was there, when I was nine – in Dylan Thomas' 'Under Milk Wood'.

I was lucky to get into acting – it was through singing in a choir actually. But I loved it – it was the coolest thing to dress up and play when I was nine. As a kid that’s what drew me into the profession – it wasn’t pressure from my parents or anything, it was that I loved it, it was fun. Now I’ve grown to love it so much that I can’t imagine doing anything else.

So it’s really important for young people to try drama, dance and music almost as an experiment than to learn skills. Lots of kids have never done any kind of ‘cultural’ activity at all – they haven’t picked up a paint brush or an instrument, or been into a theatre, let alone got up on a stage. Giving them the opportunity to do that will show them they can see how it feels. Maybe they’ll like it and think ‘maybe I’ll do more.

As for yesterday - the National was a great venue for the launch – there’s a great atmosphere, it’s an exciting place to be. The South Bank is renowned as a place where discussion happens, so it was lovely to come down.

It was also really interesting to meet other artists at the event – so often you just meet people from your own world – other actors, directors. But there were writers, dancers, musicians...in fact, talking to Cleveland afterward about singing I’m still a bit dizzy, thinking that I might start singing again – I haven’t since I was a kid.

I’d heard about the Cultural Olympiad before the event but I didn’t know everything – so much is happening all over the UK, it was really interesting to hear about the plans. London and the UK provides such diversity, such a brilliant array. Our Games will show it off, we should exploit it – in sport and across the arts. Which is what the Cultural Olympiad will do.

As much as the one-off projects that will happen I’m really interested how we can use London 2012 to put long-standing change into place, that will last well beyond the Games. For example, it would be amazing if it was a catalyst to get more funding for studio space for artists and musicians, which is really hard to come by.