I was very nervous about the accent. I was very nervous about being an American.

You can't keep things secret in a film anymore. Once you realize the secret's out, you might as well go with it and not pretend that it's not there.

Put a Post-It note on your mirror that says: 'Someone has to succeed. There's no reason why it shouldn't be me.' Repeat before every audition.

But then I got a job selling coffee at the York Theatre, and when I met theatre people, something clicked. I felt comfortable with them; I felt like myself. I decided to go to drama school based just on that feeling. I had never done any acting.

When youre a young English person who wants to be an actress and you have dreams, you dream of being Vanessa Redgrave or Judi Dench.

If you play men, in a way it's easier. You can have a voicebox, you can have false hair, mustaches, wigs, you can have all kinds of stuff. But when you're playing women playing men, you only really have yourself to work with, plus tiny little extras.

The older you get, the better you get, because you've seen more. You don't necessarily have to go through a lot, but you have to witness it in order to recreate it.