I was a tomboy. In my clubbing days, my friend Lucy Davies-Hunt - half-Iranian, looked like Yasmin Le Bon - could wear catsuits, while I was the one in the sweatshirt, jeans, and Fila boots.
A few things make a person stylish: honesty, imagination with a sprinkling of humour. I still keep an eye on trends, but I don't follow them any more.
I have recurring dreams about losing my temper, which become quite violent. I dread to think what that says about me.
We take things at face value, don't we? You form an opinion about something immediately, but you ought to step back a bit. Take in the vista first.
The first posh meal out I had was on my 10th birthday.
In my 20s, I was going round seeing agents who were patronising because I was fat and a girl, which was a double whammy. I knew what it was to feel out-of-the-loop.
You don't want to bash viewers over the head with a blunt message or lecture them - they'd soon get bored with that.
I remember when New Labour got in. I was at Salford Tech studying drama, and everyone was jumping up and down, and I was so upset, I went to a phone box and called my granddad.
I'm always an advocate of 'acting is reacting,' which can be difficult.
The films, the music, the telly that I like is always a little bit more on the margins.
I've always fancied being a bit of warrior, on a horse swinging a sword around, sorting out the men... Oh yes, that sounds lovely.
I think with 'Silk' there's something there for everyone: it's a legal drama, but it's human as well - you get to dip into the lives of the barristers and clerks.
I do, in a strange way, care deeply what people think.
Pay in the acting world hasn't kept up with inflation.
I reckoned my accent and class would count against me; I didn't see actresses as being working-class.
I watch 'Take Me Out' mainly for Paddy McGuinness. When we were younger, we worked together as lifeguards at the Bolton Leisure Centre.
Nobody's impressed back home. All my friends were going, 'Oh right, so you're doing a play up in Leeds? Another depressing one is it? Do you mind if we don't bother coming?' I love that.
It's great having time to just sit back and work through things in my mind. It helps put life into perspective.
As I've got older, I've got slightly more fussy. You've got less time; you need to use it wisely.
When I graduated, I was my biggest ever: 15 stone, with a boyfriend - my first - of just 11 stone. I was 23 years old. It wasn't just affecting my career: it was a health issue as well.
