The thing I adore about acting is that it's not me: you get to experience all these emotions, but essentially it's not you..

I filmed 'Albatross' before I got 'Downton.' It's a coming-of-age movie about this girl who leaps into this family's life, like a whirlwind. She's ba….

On the surface, it's really easy to dismiss certain characters, but sometimes you find that the most interesting parts are disappointingly shallow. I….

At 17, we all think we know what we're doing..

I don't know if I'm so righteous..

Girls in scripts are often pretty but brainless, or geeky and no one likes them, so it's great to find richer roles. Chalk and cheese aspects of peop….

I don't mind giving everyone a shock - including myself..

I really enjoy auditions anyway because I think that even if you come out of them, and you go in once and it never goes anywhere, there is something ….

I trained as a ballet dancer - well, I started when I was two and a half, and was serious about it from when I was eight until I was 18..

There's a reason hobble skirts are called hobble skirts. You literally can't move very far in them..

And it's as you get older that you realize that the things that make you strange are the things that make you who you are. And that's a lovely place ….

Unfortunately I had an ankle problem and underwent three operations..

Ever since I was young, I've read Austen and the Brontes. My friends laugh, but those books are always so tragic and wonderful - those stories, they'….

Before I go on stage, I knock three times. Three is my lucky number; I once went into an audition and was number 333 and got the best part ever..

I've read my grandmother's memoirs and she served as a nurse during World War II. What they had to do was incredible..

I've been told I make a very good brew..

I do so many things. Like when I was younger, if I drove past a house that I didn't want to live in, I'd hold my breath. Driving around somewhere lik….

I'm hungry for a cold and mean character - I'd love it if someone thought I could play gritty. I want to play a baddie, someone really scary..

I just really think every job I do, I get this gypsy attitude to money..

I remember stealing some pic n' mix when I was seven; when I got out of the shop, I burst into tears..

Everything you listen to when you are 17 should be embarrassing, otherwise you are way too cool..