I'm hungry for a cold and mean character - I'd love it if someone thought I could play gritty. I want to play a baddie, someone really scary.

I like to accessorise shirts with a little ribbon tied round my collar or a country style ascot. I've also sewed little hearts on some of my sleeves which I've done for years because I always wear my heart on my sleeve so if you see a little embroidered heart on my clothes, that's why!

Before I go on stage, I knock three times. Three is my lucky number; I once went into an audition and was number 333 and got the best part ever.

I really enjoy auditions anyway because I think that even if you come out of them, and you go in once and it never goes anywhere, there is something that you bring out of it or a note that will come back to your agent and that's the way you learn.

The thing I adore about acting is that it's not me: you get to experience all these emotions, but essentially it's not you.

I have endless playlists on my iPod so will throw on, say, Bruce Springsteen or The Smiths, depending on what kind of day I'm going to have.

I've read my grandmother's memoirs and she served as a nurse during World War II. What they had to do was incredible.