When you're believing in the person that you're playing, you feel protected. It's about being true to that person you're playing.

I think [Charles] Dickens was an extrovert and Nelly [Ternan] an introvert, and I think that Nelly saw beyond the fame and adulation and she actually loved Dickens essentially for who he was. So I think he felt like she was someone he could be himself with.

I've been very lucky. Directors I've worked with have been very amenable to changes.

I do sort of appreciate Nelly's [Ternan] view that it would be woman who would suffer mostly from that - who would be ostracized. The rigid societal conventions meant that it was difficult to live outside of them.

I hate it when, in films, the girl looks perfect in every shot. It's quite nice if there's a bit of dark circles underneath the eyes, if we see the reality of the situation that the person is going through.

I'm small. I'm petite. But I'm a bit of a fighter inside.

The British vice is overthinking before we speak, which is really annoying. I love the way that, in America, people are more straightforward. The American vice would be sometimes speaking too loudly. You can always hear American people on the trains!