I grew up with an older brother, so I'm pretty good at being bashed around.

My agent in London told me, after Never Let Me Go, because I loved doing that so much, "If you're on a lucky streak and you're doing well, you should only take a part, if you can't bear the idea of anyone else doing it." That's been the case since then, with Drive and Shame and the play (The Seagull), and the stuff that's going on, like Gatsby. I would have been devastated, if I hadn't gotten those jobs.

When you idolise someone, or you hold someone in such high regard, you just want them to be everything that you think there are - and when they are it's just lovely.

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

From Wall Street to Drive was almost a year, when I didn't do anything 'cause there was just nothing that was significantly different from the things I'd done before. There was just nothing to explore.

When you do bigger jobs there's more attention and when you film in New York you get loads of paparazzi everywhere. It affects your work because you're trying to think about the person you're acting with and you've got 20 other lenses taking pictures of you at the same time, and it throws you.

I'm not great at having my picture taken and I don't enjoy that side of it very much but I enjoy being with my friends and it's nice to have a reunion.