All of a sudden I was Joan [Mad Man] and they're going, "Oh, so she plays a badass in this." And I'm like, "Oh my god, I get to play badasses." Firefly was a little bit of that, but she started out as a mouse and then she turned into a dragon. But I never really had that opportunity. So all of a sudden people were like, "Oh, do you feel like you're being typecast?" I would say, "No, this is just opening the doors." No one thought I could do it and someone finally trusted me to do it.

I met a lot of young girls modelling and they were like, 'Oh, I'm running around town and people are taking my picture', while I was saving receipts and learning how to be self-employed.

I've always been someone who really watches other people, human behavior. To watch it and be able to express it through your version has always been really exciting to me

I think Joan's advice would be: always know more than anyone else, always be discreet as possible. And never cry at work.

I dyed my hair about 42 different colours, and kids can be pretty judgmental about people who are different. But instead of breaking down and conforming, I stood firm. That is also probably why I was unhappy.

Even when I did Ryan Gosling's movie (Lost River), we had a very '80s kind of vibe and I would say for two or three months after that, I was dressing in a very sort of '80s way.

If my legs are showing, the makeup artist adds a tiny amount of foundation to body lotion and rubs it in.