When you're a young actor, there's this pressure to rush. But I hope to be doing this into my sixties and seventies, so I'd prefer to take my time.

I've never taken a role where I don't like a person on the page.

I've done a lot of very low-budget indie films, so it was just really exciting and fun to be doing a film where there's a lot more time and these huge, vast sets. I was like a kid in a playground. It was amazing!

We live in a time where it's more surprising if people are actually together than if they're having affairs.

Acting has always existed alongside my normal life. It's been a case of learning on the job. I've worked in so many styles, with so many people, so I've picked bits up from everyone and everything.

I really enjoyed it - being involved in watching rushes and playback [in "The Invisible Woman"]. Ralph [Fiennes] was very open to my input, I think knowing that he couldn't always be there 100 percent, that he had dual aims with directing and acting.

There's so much of a desire in the entertainment industry for newness, a desire to build somebody up and then treat them as old news within six months. I think you'd be naive if you didn't try to hold on to your own way of doing things.