I feel like I've really earnt my stripes - I feel ready to play a lead. I would just love to prove I'm good enough to carry a project.

I was frequently told at drama school that I was thinking too much.

I'm a quasi-only child. With my brother and sister, I've more of a tendency to be semi-maternal. So, yes, I spent a lot of time talking to myself - I had this big dressing-up box and would just dress up as lots of characters and talk back to myself... Verging on schizophrenia, I suppose, if you analyse it carefully.

I was a daydreamer as a kid. I want to act because of whatever artistic bone is in my body. I want to explore what it is to be alive. I just want to make good sh-t.

I started writing In Darkness out of a frustration of the quality of roles that I was reading in scripts for women.

I don't believe in nudity for nudity's sake, nothing gratuitous.

Ive got a soft spot for really cheesy 1980s ballads by Pat Benatar and Foreigner. When I'm having my make-up put on at 6am and I need to be warmed up gently, it's always Ella Fitzgerald or Nina Simone.