People don't realise how dyslexia affects your confidence and how brutal it can be. People think you're dumb, and you know you're not. it's just how your brain works.

My first secondary school was in East Finchley, and I was one of only five white people in the year. I was really skinny and flat-chested with frizzy hair. I don't consider myself posh, but my mum brought me up to speak properly, and they picked up on that, as all kids do.

When I was growing up, we didn't have much money. What was important in my house was to have food on the table, be happy, and have our family.

I had a really honest conversation with my husband about equal pay because we met on a movie where he was paid more than me just because of gender.

'Skins' was the university for me. It was the best years of my life, really. We were all just a bunch of friends.

I didn't tell anyone in school that I was going to be in 'Skins.' I was terrified of them putting me down.

Being asked to memorise a script in one day when you have dyslexia is the same as having a broken foot and being asked to dance. You have to make exceptions for it.

My hair was always frizzy. I always wanted to be blonde with lovely straight hair. I was very skinny. I was quite tomboyish, just very quiet. I always wanted to fit in; I just couldn't.

The fight for equal rights or pay has become this thing where people expect actresses to talk about it. Why they feel that a man is worth more is an important issue to discuss - we are moving in the right direction, but we need to continue to talk about it and continue to label it as an issue.

Clothes are my drug. I love Camden market - I have so many vintage pieces from there it's unbelievable. Clothes are really important to me, they give me that feeling of happiness. I love being a bit free with it all and not giving myself rules.

I'm the unhealthiest person in the world. I'm not fit at all.

I really take a lot of influence from London style.

The moors have this weird energy. They trap you.

I'm lucky to have fallen into this trade, and I'm still fighting to stay in it.

I like to work. I feel blessed that I'm working.

I'm finding a lot of actors my age now who are a bit more like me, and not as posh or brought up in a certain way. There's now people of all sorts of kinds of backgrounds.

'Southcliffe' is extremely dark. It's an extremely depressing, intense story, but the shoot was like being at Disneyland. It was unbelievably different from what we were filming.

I want to play Keith Richards.

I felt there needed to be a show for teenagers that didn't make them feel judged. 'Skins' never tried to preach. It allowed young people to make their own decisions about what to do and whether it was right or wrong. Young people really respond to that, and that's what sets 'Skins' apart.

I was incredibly shy and insecure as a child. I was bullied. I was dyslexic. I had an immigrant single parent. I was the opposite of that kind of ideal, cool girl thing.

'Skins' meant so much to so many people. It was so much part of its time, and I was so young.

I was painfully shy as a child; I was dyslexic. I had a single mother who's an immigrant. I just didn't believe acting was something that people like me could do on a professional level.

I believe there are some things meant only for you and the person you love.

Kids will pick up on weakness, and I was very shy growing up. I was skinny and flat-chested; I didn't have the latest clothes. For me, it was about being left out and not having any friends and being laughed at. I was very lonely, but that happens to so many people.

I've just made a cancer drama, called 'Now Is Good,' directed by Ol Parker and starring Dakota Fanning. We filmed in Brighton and it's about a girl dying of leukemia, although it's not as depressing as it sounds.

I don't know any women who are one-dimensional, so why would I play one?

Acting's such a good job in that you're stimulating and pushing yourself constantly. I'd never want to do anything comfortable.

The way I work, I didn't hold the accent all day.

What attracted me to 'The Maze Runner' is its pure action.

I'm lucky: I've got one of those fast metabolisms where I can eat whatever I want, and I don't put on weight. But I know that's only when you're young. It'll probably hit me when I'm 30.

I'm not comfortable doing nudity. That's something quite personal.

My mother is Brazilian, and her grandfather was Italian.

'Skins' is actually a part of who I am as a person, so I was really focused on making sure the scripts and the story lines were right.

I like working with new and young directors.

She had to play the role of mother and father at the same time, and she did it to perfection. I managed to find a way through because of her. My mother is my biggest inspiration.

I like the idea of up-and-coming actors nowadays being a little different and not necessarily the drama-school stereotype, being a bit more edgy.

Do the little things that make you feel normal and happy, even if that's just getting in your pyjamas and watching 'X Factor' at the weekend.

'Skins' was never about sending a message. It was showing you everything there was and letting you make a decision.

It's very strange: I watch a lot of interviews with other actors that I know saying, 'Oh we had a great time; we're best buddies,' and I know for a fact that they didn't, and they actually hated each other.

I was bullied; I was kind of a girl in the corner. So acting was a great outlet for me by pretending to be someone else.

Mum built a life for me in a difficult place at a difficult time.

Most people think of 'Wuthering Heights' as romantic; it's really not about that at all.

There are so many things that you're supposed to conform to as an actress. Keep your mouth shut. Look pretty. Be a fashionista. I'm not stylish. I don't want to become this character.

My mum is Brazilian and very proud. I'd love to do a Brazilian film. I've been brought up in the Brazilian culture. My mum brought me up on my own, I cook Brazilian food, I've never spoken a word of English to my mother.

I find it easy to act being in love. I've experienced that and analysed it.

I wore an Urban Outfitters dress on my wedding day. It was one I had in the back of my wardrobe. It was white. We went to City Hall here in New York. I wore it with blue velvet boots my husband bought for me. I loved it. It was my favorite thing. It was chilled and spontaneous.

We lived in a council flat, and I spent most of my time on estates. My mum was very strict. I used to hate it.

I'm not a girly girl. I don't brush my hair.

I think if someone was really rude to me in an audition, even someone quite important, I think I'd be, 'What are you doing? Don't talk to me like that!'

It was really cool to work with Dakota Fanning. I've watched her grow up and I've always loved her films, loved her. It was amazing working with someone who was American as well, because obviously it's going to be a different energy straightaway. We got on really well; she's so professional and hardworking.