It's very difficult to juggle two careers, unless you're going to have someone put it all together for you. Because you're on TV, somebody just gives you a record deal - that's not how I'd want to get it, because it's just not real.

I was just doing bits and pieces of acting in the UK. I'd been in the film Breaking and Entering - Anthony Minghella gave me my start and I miss him dearly. Then I made the trip out to LA, during one of their pilot seasons, which was when they were developing Gossip Girl, and I auditioned, and things came together.

You have to do things that excite you; you have to have a passion for your work. Otherwise you're just a face on the screen.

When I need to think of, like, a peaceful scene or something, I think of my back garden in summertime. And whenever I hear the lawnmower next door, I always think it's really peaceful.

I grew up in a middle class English family just outside London. I wasn't surrounded by that speedy city lifestyle, it was a little mellower.

I feel like you just need to keep writing until the writing itself just begins to take shape.

This is my trademark: I rip my T-shirt. I’m into the whole showing-a-bit-of-chest-hair thing.