“I don’t really cook meat. I eat a bit of seafood but I’m not really into meat and the idea of cooking it is pretty intense.”

I think the thriller aspect of this film [Fifty Shades Darker] is what excited me most.

I think working in the industry, I’d be pretty nervous to have a celebrity crush.

I did get a letter which was pretty alarming once. Well, it was sent to the Fifty Shades production office. And it was pretty … I’d say interesting. I don’t really want to go into that. But otherwise the response has been good, thankfully.

I did dancing and singing when I was little, and then when I was 12 years old my friends were taking speech and drama at school. They were private lessons, and I started doing that. Over the years everyone else dropped out and I just kept going. I loved it.

In Australia, everyone gets a nickname and people started calling me “Izzy” and I hated it so I just adopted Bella.

I was always into performing and dancing as a kid and acting was a safe place to have all my feelings, which is good as a child.

I’m just a psycho myself. I loved playing Leila [from Fifty Shades Darker], taking on [a character] who’s completely unhinged. I saw her as a girl who’s grief-stricken and she just doesn’t have the tools to cope. Grief and heartbreak, it makes you do some pretty crazy things.

I think there is something about L.A., fortunately: once you get one role people think, ‘Oh well, someone employed her, so maybe we can.’ I mean, that’s my idea of it, anyway. ‘She can put one foot in front of the other and say a line.’

I collect skulls; I think that a beautiful skull is a really good gift for a guy.

I think working in the industry, I’d be pretty nervous to have a celebrity crush. I’d be pretty nervous if my boyfriend did as well because inevitably you’d end up working with them and then it would feel very suspicious.

All my stuff is men’s fashion. It’s always oversized shirts, boyfriend blazers and trousers.

I first got into acting when I was about 12. I started doing speech and drama lessons. All my friends were doing it at the time and my dad encouraged it. He encouraged any extracurricular activity.

I was a huge nerd in high school. Sure, I socialized – but I was definitely a nerd.

[Fifty Shades Darker director] James Foley directed Fear. And that’s what I love about this film, because it has a real sexy thriller element about it.

Acting is different all the time. When you’re on set, different films, or just even in between, it’s never the same. I think that’s one of the things I love about it.

I kind of liked all the creeping stuff [in Fifty Shades Darker], like when they’re sleeping and there’s me just standing behind the bed. It was great.

Good manners: The noise you don’t make when you’re eating soup.

Banquet: a plate of cold, hairy chicken and artificially coloured green peas completely surrounded by dreary speeches and appeals for donations.

The champagne was flowing like the Potomac in flood.

To a historian libraries are food, shelter, and even muse. They are of two kinds: the library of published material, books, pamphlets, periodicals, and the archive of unpublished papers and documents.

The motto of West African cooking is that if the food doesn’t set fire to the tablecloth the cook is being stingy with the pepper.

The small things of life were often so much bigger than the great things . . . the trivial pleasure like cooking, one’s home, little poems especially sad ones, solitary walks, funny things seen and overheard.

I love home cooking, and I’m not a great one for fast food.

I asked, “What are words?” The tenzo said, “One, two, three, four, five.” I asked again, “What is practice?” “Nothing in the entire universe is hidden.”