When I was 6 I thought that I wanted to be a musician - like a singer-songwriter. That's what I romantically envisioned for myself. But in reality the experience of getting into music was just the opposite. My parents signed me up for classical guitar lessons, which made for two years of the most depressing Wednesday evenings.

As an actor, one is so appreciative when one is working. I think I am lucky that I have the opportunity to work having that total dependence on an external validation.

I don't believe anyone is ugly.

America always seemed to me this foreign land that I imagined I could escape to if I needed to get away - and I think that came both from the fact that I was born there and from watching so many American movies when I was a kid. I was brought up on American films.

Obviously there's something very seductive about movies, which can be attractive in a bad way if you're doing them for the wrong reasons — for money, or for fame. I hope I won't ever do that. I don't feel at home in L.A., I feel like I'm on holiday. It's nice to dip your feet in occasionally, but I think it's probably quite unhealthy to spend too much time there at once.

If I can keep losing myself - and finding parts of myself - in other people's writing and direction, then that's all I can really ask for. That's all I want, to keep losing myself.

Famous people scare me. I get really nervous around famous people. ... I overcompensate (with) how unimpressed I am, which is completely and utter rubbish. So I'm a fan.