“A fashion show is like a 10-minute play, but there's all this anticipation; Everyone arriving, finding their seats, then there's 10 minutes of people walking past and clothes and music, then the whole thing is finished.”

“A lot of my time is spent watching films and reading scripts. And it can be all-consuming. And it's obviously something I'm fortunate that is both my work and my hobby. It's what I would naturally be doing anyway.”

“Acting has always existed alongside my normal life. It's been a case of learning on the job. I've worked in so many styles, with so many people, so I've picked bits up from everyone and everything.”

“Actors and directors work on things together. That's how I like to work, anyway. I don't want to be told what to do. I want to share it with someone and work it out together.”

“Any creative process comes with a level of self-analysis and self-criticism. There's a lot of waking up in the middle of the night going, 'Oh, I wish I had done that differently.'”

“As a child, I always liked dressing up and getting into character, and actors are lucky in being able to retain that playfulness, though we do seem to find it hard to grow up.”

“But for everyone, I think, there is always a pressure to conform, and I guess as you get older you realize it's less interesting to do that. It starts with you, though, saying, 'I know what I like doing and that's what I'm going to do.'”

“Day to day, I always wear eyeliner on my top lid and mascara. I like to do my own makeup, it depends on the event.”

“Emotional messiness is my reason for life. In acting, it's so important.”

“Fashion choices are never arbitrary. Even if you say you don't care, that's a decision. There's something you're trying to say.”

“For everyone, 'Star Wars' has been a part of their lives in some capacity. I remember watching it very early on with my cousins and my brother, and we were all cuddled around the VHS player, which sounds very old-fashioned, but that was the way then.”

“'Great Expectations' has become one of my favorite books.”

“I actually always had short hair as a kid, and it's really liberating. I recommend it. It's just very easy. I don't have to brush it.”

“I actually love doing comedy!”

“I actually studied literature at university, so I'm much more of an arts-based person, but I remember I actually did enjoy physics because you got to do weird experiments. I remember we did this thing with static where we all had to put our hands on this static ball to see that your hair would all stand on end.”

“I always had a very strong sense of independence. I really liked being able to buy my Alanis Morissette 'Jagged Little Pill' album. I wore that as a badge of honor. I love not having to rely on anyone.”

“I always love listening to Bob Dylan. 'Blood on the Tracks' is one of my favorite albums.”

“I always take off my makeup. My mother always told me to do this, and I never go to bed without doing it. I use a good moisturizer and Mario Badescu face wash.”

“I always think Michelle Williams is excellent in her work. And I do love Sofia Coppola. She always creates something so atmospheric. I love Wes Anderson, Roman Coppola, Andrea Arnold.”

“I always wear the shoes of the character a week before going on set; the idea of just putting on a new pair of shoes on the first day of filming is just horrific.”

“I am definitely romantic, and I love romantic stories - that's why I keep making romantic movies.”

“I am quite fortunate, because I can still be quite incognito. If you go out looking for attention, then you'll attract it, but if you're just getting on with your life, particularly in London where everyone is engrossed in what they're doing, you can keep a measure of anonymity.”

“I did think that acting would be much more like being a pop star. Now I'm here, I can't think of anything more different.”

“I don't actually think there has ever been too much emphasis on what I am wearing.”

“I don't have much time for shopping so I pick things up when I can. My favorite labels are APC, Isabel Marant and Agnes B because the clothes are cut small and have a simplicity to them.”

“I don't like when I look too cluttered.”

“I don't think my parents would have let me go straight into acting full time when I was 12. I do like to have balance, naturally, as an individual.”

“I feel like I personally have been lucky.”

“I guess I'm a bit of a romantic.”

“I hardly ever watch the news... I love reading newspapers, but I know they're dying out.”

“I have a great plain blue shirt from APC, and a denim one from Dolce that I wear constantly. It's hard to find the perfect denim shirt, but this is it.”

“I have such an eclectic taste. I like listening to classical music and pop music.”

“I just always want to play people. I don't want it to be necessarily that you relate to the character as female or male, but that you relate to them as a person. That's the driving force.”

“I just took everything so seriously in my early twenties. But now I'm like, 'life can be fun.' You don't have to overthink everything. I've found a way to be more at peace with things. I'm looking forward to turning 30.”

“I learnt circus skills in drama group, so I can juggle.”

“I like to jump into different worlds. I'm attracted to the emotional rollercoaster of acting. Now I've been doing it for so many years, I must rather enjoy it.”

“I love 'Annie Hall'; I will always come back to that film again and again. Diane Keaton has been such an inspiration to me. She always brings humour, but complexity, and I love watching her on screen. She's got real charisma.”

“I love being able to change from big films to small films.”

“I love French films, and I copy things I see in them. I read magazines and also look at Tumblr. I love nails, so I literally just search the word 'nails' on Tumblr and start looking.”

“I love going swimming. I spent a lot of time in North London in summer going to Hampstead Heath and swimming in the ponds there. It's so beautiful; we're so lucky to have that in London.”

“I love moments in film where there's no dialogue, and somebody communicates something with a look that kills you. That's why I love going to the cinema.”

“I love spending time researching a character and reading about them.”

“I love the Spider-Man story. I watched the cartoon on TV when I was a kid, and my brother wore his Spider-Man pyjamas everywhere.”

“I make all my decisions by listening to my instinct and then keeping my fingers crossed it will lead to a good place.”

“I think actors always find the dialogue doesn't quite fit, so you always have to play with it.”

“I think, as an actor, you're always traveling. There's a sense of dislocation sometimes from home.”

“I think human nature is eternal and constant.”

“I think it's absolutely about time that we have as many female leads as male. It's a very exciting time to be an actress.”

“I think that my parents' divorce gave me a very strong sense of self-reliance and independence. I realised that I needed to make sure I could support myself because you don't know what's going to happen in the future.”

“I think that when something happens when you're growing up, like a death or divorce, it does open the world slightly because things aren't as straightforward.”

“I think the writing skills of actors are sometimes underestimated.”

“I think there is an enormous appetite for great roles for women.”

“I think there is an enormous appetite for great roles for women. You can see that clearly with things like 'The Hunger Games.'”

“I think we're very lucky that there is a tradition of British actors working in America and being respected in America, and I've always liked Kate Winslet and her work and respected her.”

“I think you're attracted to things that are different from yourself in a character because it's more interesting, and you get to play out a fantasy version of yourself.”

“I use SPF every day, then apply foundation, mascara, eyeliner and blusher. I always take my make-up off at night and moisturize.”

“I usually have two or three books on the go at the same time. If I'm in different moods, I want to read different things.”

“I was a very rotund child with short hair, and for some reason, I always had black ballet shoes. I was like the Wednesday Addams of ballet.”

“I was so passionate about wanting the role in 'Like Crazy,' I filmed myself in the shower because that's where one of the scenes was set. It just felt instinctive. It was a close up! It would have been strange if I'd sent off a wide shot of myself. That's not the kind of work I want to do!”

“I was thinking 'Love Story', obviously, was a romantic film of that time.”

“I would be writing an essay that was due in the next day until about 1 A.M., and then I would be up at 6 A.M. and on a train to Birmingham to record 'The Archers'. It was pretty intense.”

“I would describe my look as 'ladylike rock chick.'”

“I'd love to do more comedy. It'd just be nice to go into work and not be crying every day. Some broad slapstick would be great. Falling over banana skins would be wonderful.”

“I'd studied English literature at university, but I was also far more enamored with Virginia Woolf, Katherine Mansfield, and James Joyce. That was my passion.”

“If it's something quite low-key then I'll often do my own makeup. But for something like a premiere, it's good to have a makeup artist because they know what they're doing.”

“If the part isn't always there on the page, I've had good relationships with writers where there's an openness to bring more to the role.”

“If you're in a film that you're proud of and you care about, then you're always happy to talk about it.”

“I'm a horrible perfectionist and very highly strung. That's why I do yoga: to unwind.”

“I'm a masochist in some ways. I look for things that I think I can't do, then, for some bizarre reason, I really want to do them. Maybe one day I'll take the easy route.”

“I'm attracted to playing people who aren't necessarily straightforward.”

“I'm happiest when I'm discussing a script and working with interesting people.”

“I'm interested in all forms of performance, yet I think it's difficult to be as equally talented in all of them as they call for such different skills. At the moment, I still feel I'm learning and want as much experience and variety as possible.”

“I'm more of a freestyle dancer. I like to do my own thing.”

“I'm not a huge jewelry fan.”

“I'm not really massively into going out. I'm much more of a hibernator. It's nice to have people come to your house or go to someone's house, I think.”

“I'm obsessed with subtexts. I love that we often don't say what we feel. That gap between the two. I like it when actors reveal a lot without having to say it.”

“I'm used to doing independent film where the style is a lot more casual. With improvising, you obviously find so much out on the day - and in a way, I feel more comfortable doing that.”

“I'm very excited that I can get on a skateboard and skateboard down the street now. That was something I never thought I'd be able to do. I conquered my fears.”

“I'm very independent, creatively, always trying to push myself - and I think that comes from my mother.”

“In a way, 'Like Crazy' keys into our generation, this idea of now we can still be in communication. Where do the boundaries of relationships end?”

“In everyday life, I like APC, Isabel Marant, but I also like Zara. It depends how I'm feeling on the day. I like clothes that have a certain strength to them - simple but graphic.”

“Interviewing someone is very similar to preparing a character, isn't it? You're just asking questions: 'Who is this person? Why did they make that choice? Why are they doing that?' You're being Sherlock Holmes.”

“It always starts with a script. I like to have plenty of time to read something, and I always like to read a paper copy. I hate reading it on email. I sit down with a script, and want to see how it hits me. It's an instinctive process.”

“It can be frustrating when you're put in a category with others. Women do get lumped together in this reductive grouping, and you think, 'Gosh, that rarely happens with the boys.' I'm sure people don't say to Eddie Redmayne, 'How do you feel about Andrew Garfield?'”

“It can be very intense being an actor; it can be quite a small world. Then you speak to your friend who is a scientist and they have a completely different perspective.”

“It is disheartening when you read an interview with an actress, and it starts by describing what she is wearing.”

“It was only after university that I said to myself that I had to take the risk and have a serious go at acting. It's such a bizarre profession, because you have to be totally tough to deal with all those times when you're being turned down, and then really soft in order to access your character's emotions.”

“It's funny how seeing a love story never gets boring, because it's the dream, isn't it? It's the dream to have a true connection with another human being.”

“It's nice to film in somewhere that you actually love being. Usually, you're in a studio for months on end, and you never see any daylight, so you really make the most of it.”

“It's nice to have some continuity you can come back to. I feel that in coming home, coming back to London.”

“I've always been a feminist, and what I love in my work is being able to explore a full-sided woman and not patronize her.”

“I've heard directing talked about as being a benign dictatorship, and I think that's probably the best way a director should be. They're open to collaboration and feedback from people, but ultimately, it's got to be that one person's vision. That's what I think makes a film really stand out.”

“I've never done a superhero movie. It's very nice to you as an actor in several worlds to go and to experiment.”

“I've never done this level of physical preparation for something. Particularly for 'Rogue One' where I was training every day and doing kung fu rehearsals on a daily basis. But that's part of the reason I wanted to do it, because it was very different from what I've done before.”

“London is my home. I miss my family so much; it's hard being away. And I miss salt and vinegar crisps. And Marmite. And good fudge. Oh my God. Clotted cream fudge.”

“My agent called me up and said, 'There is a tremendous female lead in the new 'Star Wars' film, and I think you're really going to like it.' The opportunity to play someone determined, who's trying to find her skills as a leader; to be in a fantasy movie; to be able to do a leading female role in a film of that scale - that's very, very rare.”

“My bag always weighs a ton. I carry my whole bathroom with me. You never know what's going to happen in a day!”

“My boy cousins used to sit my older brother and me down and take us through a film-studies course. It included 'Tremors', 'The Goonies', and, of course, 'Star Wars'. That was when it began: sitting cross-legged watching as the opening crawl goes up the screen.”

“My grandmother has dementia, and my mother is looking after her as her primary caregiver. Seeing their relationship has had a profound impact, seeing how tough it is for both of them and seeing how the roles change and how my mother has gone from being a daughter to being the mother.”

“My most treasured item is the brown leather bag that my mum bought me from a little Italian shop for my 21st. It's supposed to be a vanity bag, but I use it as a handbag.”

“My mother was in the kind of late-'60s, early-'70s origins of female emancipation. And she was very much like, 'You're not going to be defined by how you look. It's going to be about who you are and what you do.'”

“My mother worked in advertising and my father was a journalist. But they split up when I was three and I grew up in a single-parent family. My mum brought my brother and I up.”

“Nothing beats an 'Archers' fan for their levels of devotion. I think it's because it's radio, and you obviously conjure up an image of the character that is so powerful.”

“Of everything I have done, 'The Archers' always gets the most excitement; there's a sort of uncontrollable joy from fans of the program.”

“Often the last thing I want to do is stand up in front of 50 cameras on the red carpet. I'd rather have a cup of hot milk and an early night.”

“On 'Rogue One,' we had these sets with tiny little buttons that would light up when you pressed them, and screens full of graphics, and it really felt like you were driving a spaceship. The level of detail; you'll be two meters away from where the action is, but there'll be a little detail there just in case the camera catches it.”

“Once you're playing someone, you shouldn't be judging them in any way. That's what being an actor is - it's having empathy for people that are different from yourself. Once you've committed to that person, your responsibility is to tell that story.”

“People keep saying how amazing it is having a female lead, and I just sort of feel, 'Well, of course!'”

“She was obsessed with French and Swedish cinema. I also remember our mother showing us 'Gone With the Wind' very early on. She absolutely loved Vivien Leigh, so it must have been a formative experience for me, thinking, 'Oh, maybe one day I'll be like Vivien Leigh.'”

“The actresses I've known support each other very much. If you have a level of confidence in what you're doing, then you don't feel threatened. We all have different things to offer.”

“The ideal would be to have a career like Meryl Streep's or Kate Winslet's. It's just unbelievable how they manage to make such incredible choices one after the other. If you could have a career anything like that, then that would be a great thing.”

“The key is working with great directors. A film is so many different people and all their talents, but particularly the directors, because of the idiosyncrasies of that person.”

“The luxury of radio is that you don't spend hours in make-up, and you can wear whatever you want. It's bizarre. You'll be saying lines, with various people around making sound effect noises.”

“The more you work, the more people can see that you're something different from what's come before.”

“There's so much of a desire in the entertainment industry for newness, a desire to build somebody up and then treat them as old news within six months. I think you'd be naive if you didn't try to hold on to your own way of doing things.”

“There's so much that goes into a film that I feel like it's a bit arrogant to say, 'Oh, I never watch my own movies.' Well, it's not just you. There's a whole host of other people. So much skill goes into it. But I would say it does take a couple times seeing it to get a level of perspective.”

“There's such a sense of theatre in getting glammed up; it's like putting on a play or short film.”

“When a relationship with a director is really working, you have the same idea at the same time. You go, 'Look, this isn't working,' and they'll go, 'I know it's not working. What are we gonna do?' And you go and try something else.”

“When I come home, I am literally the most popular person with my friends' parents for doing 'The Archers.'”

“When I was 11 years old, I was a member of 'Press Pack,' which was a thing that would come out in 'The Sunday Times' in England. You'd write articles and send them off and would get a badge saying 'Official Press.' I was really excited about my badge.”

“When you're a skateboarder or a snowboarder, it affects the way you talk, the way you move, the way you interact with the world and other people.”

“When you're a young actor, there's this pressure to rush. But I hope to be doing this into my sixties and seventies, so I'd prefer to take my time.”

“When you're in the head of the character, you feel less self-conscious. If I was just being me, I would feel so exposed and be like, 'Why is there a huge camera in my face?' But, when you're believing in the person that you're playing, you feel protected. It's about being true to that person you're playing.”

“While you are improvising, you need to be prepared, and I like to have a sense of who the character is, what she likes to read, where she grew up, where we went to school, and what she has for breakfast, so that when I go to set, I'm free to explore.”

“With every film that you do, you're always so nervous. You feel exposed because you know people will see this eventually. You sort of have to put all that out of your head. What will be will be. But it's nerve wracking.”

“Without sounding too pretentious, I feel my job is almost like becoming a monk or a nun - it's a calling.”

“You have to be brave and not always play likeable people. It's difficult, because there's a demand for the hero or heroine to be very likeable.”

“You have to have a bag of Yorkshire Tea bags. It is the best tea that England has to offer, and that comes with me everywhere I go.”

“You just have to take these opportunities when they come along. They're not that frequent; you'll get a really good script, oh, maybe once a year if you're lucky.”

“You still slightly down that you're ever going to work again, every time you finish something. That's the territory of being an actor. It's like anything that's competitive. It takes a lot of determination. I just feel lucky to be able to do something that I really love.”