I was quite straight-laced. I was quite academic until I was about 14 and then I went to boarding school where I had the opportunity to continue to be very academic, but got less interested in it and became more involved in acting. And then when I was applying for universities I used a couple of places on my UCAS form to apply for drama school without telling anyone... but didn't get into drama school. But that was the most rebellious thing I did.

I'm more the sort of person who doesn't like hugging strangers because we don't know each other, so we shouldn't.

I wanted to be a musical theatre actress - I wanted to play Sally Bowles, forever and ever always.

When you start playing a character every day for seven weeks, it suddenly starts becoming easier.

Leonardo is the most incredible actor, on the planet, with a couple of people alongside him. Getting to act with him is just [amazing]. I walked away from my audition for that and I couldn't believe that I'd been acting with him. I've worked with amazing people, but my friends freak out that I'm working with him. I freak out in a geeky acting way. They freak out in a starstruck way. He's Leonardo DiCaprio, and his fame is so big. That's a complete tangent about that.

My character in 'Shame' is an outrageous person. Loud and uncompromising and I begged Steve McQueen to give me the job.

People get married when they're 18 and spend their whole lives together. I think their greatest fear is that someone will see it as a fling because they were young and it didn't mean anything.