Usually, at the end of a film it's like I've finally gotten to know this person completely, and then we're done. That actually happened on the set of Twilight, and then it happened again on New Moon. Each time my character Bella became a different person, and I got to know that person and take her to the next level.

With every project, you feel like you're trying to find your place to vent. For any actor, that's typically the feeling that drives you to do it.

On the one hand I have very traditional values: I'm looking for love and want a baby one day. On the other hand, I have a secret and rebel side, that I maybe took from an Australian mom who handed down to me the love for adventure and freedom. And sometimes I feel a bit offbeat.

If you look at the actual movies that I've done, the whole struggle is to get to that point, so it's not something that you just have so easy . . . But it's okay. It doesn't bother me. I've done okay so far.

I had to act in a school play when I was about ten years old. I really didn't want to do it. But everyone had to do it so I didn't have a choice. A talent agent came and watched it and later gave me some work. It's funny because I'd always known that I wanted a movie career. I just didn't think that I would be in the movies.

I think it's cool to come out of somewhere where you're being pushed into this mold and then you figure out in that who you are.

It's not like I sit around watching my movies again and again, but I've never quite believed actors when they say they don't watch themselves.