My favourite film is Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
That's just pure fun.
Thank you for having me.
You've had an amazing career.
Could you tell us about some of your on-screen highlights,
like maybe the person you've learnt the most from?
Leonardo DiCaprio was amazing,
in that I was working with someone who's well known
as being one of the most famous actors on the planet,
but his dedication to every single take,
whether he was on camera or not, was really inspiring.
A lot of people, when they do film,
they're brilliant when the camera's on them,
and then when the camera turns around onto the other actor,
they sort of do maybe 75% of what they were doing before,
but he gave 100% on every single take
and that really stuck with me as a commitment,
because getting to work in the film industry is amazing
and it's such a great opportunity, and seeing people who really
take it 100% every time is always exciting.
The director that I worked with that I learnt the most from
was Lone Scherfig, who directed An Education.
I was quite nervous of the crew,
I used to think that the cameramen would be judging my acting.
You know, it was just very self-involved,
but I used to worry about that sort of thing a lot.
She really made me feel comfortable and she really reinforced the idea
that a crew works together to make a film
and that no one is doing their job alone.
Are there any movies that you wish you'd acted in?
Wish I'd acted in? Gosh, yeah, so many.
The Dark Knight, just because it's one of the best films ever.
Do you have a new skill that you've learnt
that you favour, maybe horse riding or playing guitar?
I did learn to horse ride, yeah.
I learnt to horse ride for Far from the Madding Crowd,
which was great until I fell off quite badly two weeks into filming
and had really bad concussion for about six weeks.
- Oh no! - No, but I actually loved it.
Not the falling off concussion bit, but I did love it, it was great.
But these horses that they use in film are extraordinary
because they're so well trained,
because they have to use them in huge battle scenes.
You know, there's an amazing industry that trains these horses,
so it was really cool to get to work with them,
and of course, they get the real riders to stunt double for you
and do the proper horse riding that I would have been too afraid to do.
But I did love learning and I definitely will get back on a horse.
Is there maybe a favourite prop you've ever had?
Actually, on Suffragette, yeah.
Another amazing part of that film, when the Suffragettes went to prison,
when they were imprisoned for campaigning,
and lots of them were thrown in for no reason at all,
they would go on hunger strike.
And when they came out of prison,
they were presented with hunger strike medals.
And the factory that made those medals was about to close down
until we started filming and we asked them to make the medals,
so it was the same factory that, 100 years ago,
were making these medals for the Suffragettes,
and they started making them again as props for our film.
And then when we wrapped the film, everybody on the crew and cast
got given one, so I think that was it.
Every time I pinned it on every day, yeah, it made me feel
part of that movement, but yeah, that was a pretty special one.
Is there a scene or a whole film which has been part of your career
which has had a big effect on you?
I think Pride and Prejudice, my first job, had a massive effect on me
because it introduced me to the film industry, and also,
that was one of the jobs that I did at the beginning of my career
when I just had a chance to observe other people
doing their jobs really well.
My role wasn't very big but I was on set all of the time,
so I did a lot of giggling in the corner,
but I got to watch a lot of really great actors,
Brenda Blethyn and Keira Knightley
and Rosamund Pike and Matthew Macfadyen,
and got to sort of study them, in a way.
It was my version of going to drama school,
so I think that was probably my first film
and also the biggest impact on me.
Is there maybe a script or a line of a script
that has really stuck out to you?
One of my favourite films to work on was a film called Never Let Me Go,
which was an adaptation of a book written by Kazuo Ishiguro.
A bit of the voice-over was her narration from the novel,
and it ended with a line wrapping up the whole story where she says
'maybe none of us understand what we've lived through
or feel we've had enough time'.
And I said that voice-over, because we did it after we made the film,
I did the voice-over maybe eighteen times in various recording studios
whilst we were editing the film, but I just loved it.
I loved the writing and I loved the sentiment of it.
It's just always stuck with me.
Which three films would you recommend young people watch
while they're growing up from maybe fourteen to nineteen?
Oh, gosh.
Well, my favourite film is Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
That's just pure fun and a great film.
Cry Freedom is a great film and one that I didn't see
until I was a lot older, but I really wished I'd seen it.
Cabaret, I suppose for the same reason but in a different context,
exploring the war but doing that through music,
and that being something that I loved.