I appreciate the written word and spoken word more, but Atonement sort of established so much of me. It was a character that didn't really speak, and I found that a lot of the roles I was gravitating toward after that were kind of nonverbal.

I don't mind doing the whole red carpet thing when I have to when it comes to publicizing a movie. But besides that, I don't like those kinds of things at all. Celebrity status is not really something that appeals to me.

It's too distracting to read about yourself. You want to be perfect and you want everyone to love you, and that's never going to happen.

When I can't get the character out of my head, and I'm in my bedroom and I start to actually act out the scenes that I've read in a script, I think okay, I really want to do this.

Ivo van Hove is directing The Crucible, and rehearses in quite an unusual way. We started rehearsals last week and dived straight into the first act, like, five minutes after we all turned up. No warm-ups. We were very intensely immersed in that whole world on day one. It was quite surreal because I've never done any theater before.

I will always have a child in me. That is what Pete Jackson has got, what a lot of the directors I have worked with have. It is about knowing how to have fun and that is something I always want to hold on to.

I've always wanted to act and I grew up a little on film sets when my dad was working as an actor.