If you're very open to watching the world go by, with people's different tics, you absorb it all without realizing it and find ways to put something into your character. I'm not sure I'm always aware I'm mimicking someone.

I used to look like a deer in headlights on the red carpet. You step out of the car and it's bedlam. Everyone's got crazy eyes.

People quit on jobs. They quit on marriages. They quit on school. There's an immediacy of this day and age that doesn't lend itself to being committed to anything.

I find that it really helps that I live in the States. I'm married to an American, and I have lots of American friends.

I think I'm drawn to characters with complexity or who are under duress in some way and have some conflict going on.

You feel very much like a puppet, but it had been what I was accustomed to - so you just get on with it and try to find something that rings true.

I had a non-existent knowledge of Queen Victoria's early years. Like everyone else, I thought of her as an old lady dressed in black. My mom had told me about her, though, that she had a very loving relationship with Albert, that they had lots of kids, and that he died young.