If you do a lot of period drama, those female characters, nine times out of 10, are going to represent all the good in the world. As a young actress, there`s not a lot that you can do to get away from those roles except try and move within them.

The single biggest surprise about acting is how unsexy the lead actors can be when you work with them.`` ``He is a beautiful looking man but you are soon sitting down between scenes, having a cigarette, comparing blisters and talking about your agent. On her co-star Charlie Hunnam while filming Nicholas Nicleby.

There has to be a real ambiguity about which way her life is going to go.It`s a genuine crossroads at the point that I play it. So I think it`s important for people to know that she is deeply struggling with this moral conundrum, but not necessarily know whether she is going to find the strength of character to truly absolve herself of this responsibility and find `Atonement.` - On playing Briony in "Atonement".

"There has to be a real ambiguity about which way her life is going to go.It`s a genuine crossroads at the point that I play it. So I think it`s important for people to know that she is deeply struggling with this moral conundrum, but not necessarily know whether she is going to find the strength of character to truly absolve herself of this responsibility and find `Atonement.`" - On playing Briony in "Atonement".

I try and do things that I think will be interesting. Sometimes I get it right in terms of the fact that people like it and sometimes I get it wrong in terms of the fact that people don`t like it, but I always try and do jobs which I think will be interesting to me and will help me improve as an actor.

I`ve done pieces of work that people have hated that I`ve been incredibly proud of, and other pieces of work that I`ve done my best, but I, personally, haven`t been very fulfilled by, that people have thought is the best thing since sliced bread.

He`s monumentally gifted - that sounds so terrible and pretentious, I know - but he`s made nine brilliant films, all of them so different. So you think to yourself, I might disagree with you on one small thing, but I`m guessing you know what you`re doing. (On Francois Ozon)

The worst thing you can do as a performer is to judge your character in any way, positively or negatively.

Hollywood people have their own trailers, but I`m usually in a three-way. I like the camaraderie. But I read somewhere that Nicole Kidman had the whole top floor of a hotel redecorated when she was staying there. I think that`s quite a good idea.

I hate going to places like Soho House [a trendy London members` club] where everyone is an actor who knows everyone else. If you are all actors how are you going to expand your mind?`

I think for me, the really wonderful and memorable moments was the way that I was able to learn so much working with François who`s a very, very specific director and because he`s engaged in every single element of the process.

I think the main challenge is that she`s essentially a pretty unattractive person in many ways but you have to approach a character like that believing in them, liking them, trying to understand them and appreciating what their world view is, and so I think that was a challenge occasionally because she wasn`t always an easy character to like. On playing Angel Deverell.

"It`s very distressing doing that journey every night, and I have to do whatever I can not to get upset. It`s a very sad part." - On playing Nina in The Seagull.

I`m desperate to find a contemporary film with a character that`s interesting, dignified and complex.I struggle to find those parts, and when I do, they usually go to other actresses.

I don`t read everything that`s written about me.But it filters through. And I know that for everybody that thinks I`m talented and promising, there is somebody out there that thinks that I`m s***!

"She`s brilliant. I think that we were good friends and I liked her a lot. She`s a lovely, very sensitive actress. That was one of the most enjoyable parts of the film, working with her." - On working with Rose Byrne.

It`s taken me a while to realize it takes a lot to be a good actor, and you have to respect the craft. Every job I do, I realise how little I know.

I`m very much into self-improvement - particularly with cinema. I`ve just started watching Hitchcock films and I recently saw Michael Moore`s Bowling For Columbine, which was a revelation for me. I do my best to extend my knowledge, but I always seem to be ten steps behind everyone else - but I do try.

I didn`t decide to take the role because I deliberately wanted to further my career, but so I could be proud of my work.

An actor is just a medium through which the director makes his dreams and imagination come to life. An actor should concentrate on his or her character.

"I wouldn`t have done something that I thought had no merit in it at all, but I did experience a fall-out from being calculating about your career, believing that you should do something in order to get you somewhere else. It was just creatively unfulfilling." On Dirty Dancing Two: Havana Nights

f you do a lot of period drama, those female characters, nine times out of 10, are going to represent all the good in the world. As a young actress, there`s not a lot that you can do to get away from those roles except try and move within them.

"... Hollywood? Well, it`s still there, last time I looked." On Hollywood.

``I had the time of my life. I have used every part of my body, plus muscles I did not know I had, because the dancing is a combination of salsa and Latin ballroom. It felt like daily aerobics." On discovering a passion for dancing during Dirty Dancing two.

I am so clumsy. If there`s a chance of dropping something or crashing into something, I do it. How sexy is that?

``He is a beautiful looking man but you are soon sitting down between scenes, having a cigarette, comparing blisters and talking about your agent." On her co-star Charlie Hunnam while filming Nicholas Nicleby.

"The single biggest surprise about acting is how unsexy the lead actors can be when you work with them.``

She has the extraordinary capacity to push you as a performer, and yet never make you feel as if you should be afraid to experiment. - On working with Mira Nair on Vanity Fair.

For a long time, I was worried about being typecast. But costume drama is a large part of the work in this country. It`s just a bit sniffy to turn up your nose at it.

"I do think the Olympics are a curiously male obsession. Who can run the fastest from here to here? You know what I think? Who gives? Because if you`re not running to catch a bus or running to buy me a bunch of flowers, I don`t care." Her thoughts on the Olympics.

"I date nothing but older men. I`ve reached a stage in my life where I`ve started to worry whether it`s a fetish or not. What did I find out? I suppose that the only real effect of ageing is deep cynicism - that, and you are maybe a little more comfortable with yourself." On her dating habits.

"I [showed] my tits and teeth. I`m useless at it. About 40 per cent of success as an actor is now based on whether you`re good at being interviewed and how you conduct yourself. And I`m really bad at that." On the Vanity Fair premiere

"The filmmakers were obsessed with having someone skinny. I just thought, why didn`t they get someone like Kate Bosworth, if that`s what they wanted? An actress like that wouldn`t worry about whether or not the political ideas were being sensitively or subtly dealt with. They`d do the job, smile and look pretty on the cover of Teen Vogue. There I am, 135 pounds and trying to make art! I was so wrong for it!" On the project Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights (2004).