Elizabeth Berrington believes that winning the lottery would take away a person's ambition.
In the current series of BBC1's The Syndicate, the former Waterloo Road actress plays cleaner Dawn, who's just won a share of £14.5 million on the lottery.
But Elizabeth said she wouldn't want lose her drive to achieve things if she won that kind of money.
Elizabeth told whatsontv.co.uk: "I have thought that there's a real strangeness about it because I do think, in many ways, winning would take away your ambition.
"If you’re an actor and you’re self-employed, you’ve got to be enthusiastic and excited about the possibilities of the next job, the thing that you don't know about, that might happen tomorrow.
"That's the thing that's kept me going all these years – but if that was taken away, it would deflate that."
Elizabeth's character Dawn was delighted at the beginning of the series to learn she'd won the life-changing sum on the lottery. But Dawn’s joy soon turned to anguish when she discovered her teenage daughter, Amy (Daisy Head), had vanished.
In this week’s episode, Amy’s still missing and Dawn is worried sick that she may never be found alive…
"Very quickly within the story, events take place and your greatest day dream becomes your worst nightmare," said Elizabeth. "The rest of the series is all about trying to unpick this thriller and misery that then takes place."
The Syndicate continues on Tuesdays at 9pm on BBC1.
