“When you’re a working actor and you’re happy to be one, you can’t focus all your energy on acting because you will go crazy. You have to focus as much energy as you can away from yourself.”

I’m a natural blonde, but I feel like a brunette. I feel like people treat me now how I should be treated. People used to be shocked, when I was blond, that I wasn’t stupid.

My parents were journalists and friends with writers, artists, and just a really interesting assortment of people, so I was exposed to all lifestyles from a young age.

I fell in love with theater there, and after graduation I moved to Los Angeles to pursue acting.

My parents said marrying was an optimistic thing to do in pessimistic times.

If I have to draw attention away from some hormone-induced acne on my chin, I put on a lot of mascara.

I guess for my skin, I clean it and moisturize and try to drink water. How boring is this though? I’m convinced that it comes from within. If you’re happy and healthy, it shows.

It was helpful to have the confidence of youth that came from a lack of desperation. I thought, ‘If I don’t succeed, I’ll go back to school and study.’

I do not tweeze my eyebrows. I’ve been letting them grow out for years. I try to fill them in wherever nature has abandoned me.

Documentaries are a powerful and effective way of bridging the gap between worlds, breaking through to new audiences that wouldn’t otherwise be engaged – in essence, not preaching to the choir.

I shaved the back of my head once and did the asymmetrical hair.

I tend to go with a daytime look, pretty natural, but I always fill in my eyebrows – I hate if I leave the gym and my eyebrows aren’t done; I’m just very uncomfortable with myself.

I’m now convinced that I’m a doctor. I mean, if someone says they have a pain, I’m like, ‘Well, that’s your spleen.’

In human years I am 29. In actress years I’m the ripe, promising age of 18 to 35. That’s how it works here in Hollywood.

I love eye makeup. I really like doing a cat eye, playing with liquid liners and different colors of liners, like emerald and deep blues, combining them with black.

At the end of your twenties, you realize you are inherently flawed, and that’s great, and that’s what makes you dynamic.

I used to play hooky from school so I could watch cooking shows.

I’m no actor and I never have been. What people see on the screen is me.

I think it’s sort of a rite of passage for a British actor to try and get the American accent and have a good crack at doing that.

If any child of mine becomes an actor I will turn in my grave.

The role of an actor is to make every character believable.

I trained for three years at drama school to be an actor – not a celebrity.

The actors that I do know are people who I think have souls, you know?

It’s just people should realize that the celebrity aspect of being an actor is very rarely enjoyable for people like me who would always rather go unnoticed and disappear into the crowd.

I wanted to be a stage actress. I wanted to be a New York actress and have a community with other actors. I didn’t want to get famous; I always thought getting famous was a drag on you.