“Everybody’s story of getting into the industry is just as difficult as the next person. Whether you come from money or no money, it’s not easy… you have to offer yourself; you can’t expect someone to get you.”

I think you’re always attracted by characters that are a little bit like you, or at least the worst parts of you that you can finally accept and say, ‘All right, at least I know that now!’

I love Le Carre’s writing.

I played Mary at the age of seven in my first nativity play, and I loved it – there is something so fascinating about embodying someone else.

I really take my hat off to anybody that steps in the ring because it’s so hard – you’re competing against your friends, and you’re working in front of an audience who tells you exactly what they’re thinking.

We’re learning things every decade we grow through, and ultimately, you do end up with a different way of looking at things.

Playing Paige, I felt I had to train to wrestle.

I don’t want to feel like I have to change myself or my image.

I’ve been told to be skinny before – it’s already happened, but it’s up to you to either listen or say no. I’m not listening.

I want women on-screen that we all either want to be, or we know, or we recognize.

My dad still collects newspaper clippings about me.

My characters do have some fantastic taste in men.

There’s a reason why there’s a problem with bodies, and it’s because you never actually get to see any normal versions of them.

When you’re given a platform, and you’re allowed to perform, and someone’s there to heighten you as opposed to dampen you, that’s a nice feeling.

That’s something I’ve always appreciated watching actors that I’ve looked up to, is when they look like you and me, or they have a funny elbow, or they have, you know, a hairy face.

I found out I got ‘The Little Drummer Girl’ and my BAFTA nomination in quick succession, and I just didn’t expect it to be like that. I thought there would be a lot more time in between. It’s been an overwhelming experience.

And I’m a very physical person: I talk with my hands. And I felt how the clothes took that away from me. And that was the idea, I think. It was a way of limiting women.