When you're a teenager, your essence is so specific to being a teenager, and everything becomes so extreme. Your emotions are on the surface, and you oscillate between different things at one time.
Bel Powley
I grew up with my parents in the kitchen discussing the audition my dad had that day or moaning about something or other in the industry, so it was unglamourised and normalised for me from a very young age.
So many times, you get sent scripts where it's, like, the token chick, where the woman is just there to serve the man in the film.
It sounds so negative of me to say, but I don't feel like there were many coming-of-age films when I was growing up. I think that when I was a teenager, I felt really misrepresented in the teenage roles that I was watching onscreen. Especially in women.
My dad's an actor, and my mum's a casting director and a writer.
'70s music is the kind of music I listen to. '70s clothes, I adore.
We try to push such crazy ideals onto young women: the Hollywood version of what they should look like, what they should do, and the kind of Prince Charming they should be looking for. We should just be proud of who we are, because we can't be anybody else. So what's the point of trying?
The movies I used to watch, I remember always being so angry because I felt like I, as a teenage girl, was never truly represented in a film. There were always bits of me that were represented - I'd watch 'Juno' and be like, 'Oh, well part of me is like that, but it's still not the whole thing.'
I was quite academic, quite geeky when I was a kid. I was more interested in going to school than I was in becoming a film star or something.
I used to do a Saturday drama group called Young Blood Theatre Company with school-friends in west London - nothing to do with my mum and dad. A casting director came to pick people out for a new BBC children's series called 'MI High.' She picked me, I auditioned, and I got the job.
I'm one of those girls that, day-to-day, I'm in trainers or Converse. I have about 50 pairs of trainers, so when I get the chance to dress up, I will definitely be in heels. 100 percent. I might take some battered Converse in my bag to wear at the after-party when my feet are tired.
'Diary of a Teenage Girl' was my first American movie. It was my first movie in an American accent. It's based on a graphic novel, which was written in 2002 by someone called Phoebe Gloeckner. It was turned into a play by Marielle Heller, who then wrote it as a screenplay for Sundance Labs.
I hope to teach people that it's fine to make mistakes because they will learn from them, to be who they are, and to learn to love their bodies.
I'm not saying I only want to work with female directors. But I want to continue to work with emerging female directors.
Movies make teenagers have quippy answers for every question. Nothing seems to faze them, and they're like, 'Oh, whatever.' You're not like that when you're a teenager. You're really earnest. Things really feel like life or death. And you kind of oscillate between emotions at one time. It's very emotionally draining being a teenager.
I think people get confused: people think 'strong female characters' mean you need to play an action figure.
I think that Hollywood misconstrues actresses saying, 'Oh I wanna play a strong female character,' like we all want to play, like, superheroes or something.
I'm so open to different things. The only thing I'd say is I've set the bar pretty high in terms of good female roles with 'Diary,' and I want to continue in that vein.
My first professional audition as an actor was when I was about 12 years old, and it was for a children's television show called 'M.I. High,' which I ended up doing for two years.
I don't feel like I properly started acting until I did my first play, 'Tusk, Tusk.'
I always wear lip balm because I wear a lot of lipstick. I'm a big lipstick person. I would rather wear too-bright lipstick than too-heavy eye makeup.
I feel confident that I'm presenting myself in a feminist way that is good for young women.
I'm not not a fan of graphic novels, but it's not like one of my pastimes, reading graphic novels.
When I was young, there weren't any teenage girls I could relate to in film. They were all put in boxes: the virginal good girl, the really sarcastic asexual one. I wanted to do something that represented how I felt then.
Most of my really strong friendships are with people I've known all my life.
You have to have really thick skin. Art is obviously there to be criticized and there to be taken in different ways. Not everyone is going to like what you do.
I feel like all teenagers can relate to that feeling of being, like, so highly strung, and everything is so on the surface, and everything is so extreme.
When you're portraying someone that really existed, there has to be a time as an actress where you leave reality and move into the fantasy world so you can do your job of creating a character.
I want to play a range, from victims to strong people, just as long as it's a well-rounded character. And it's not a woman who's just there for the purpose of the man.
I was really quite geeky at school. At one point, I wanted to be prime minister or a mathematician.
All my friends were off on gap years, so going to New York alone, at the age of 18, was kind of my flying the nest. It was an amazing experience.
I want to keep playing strong female roles. I don't mean superheroes, but women who are really alive.
I had a place to go to university; I was going to study history. I was in New York doing 'Arcadia,' and I suddenly thought, 'It feels a bit weird to go from a New York stage to Manchester University.' It didn't quite feel right.
If you're doing something like 'Arcadia' by Tom Stoppard, which has been done millions and millions of times, and it's been played some unbelievably well-respected actors, there's a lot more pressure there. But I try not to think about all the other people who have done it before me. You've got to try and be original.
I started doing theatre, and that's when I really fell in love with the profession; I learned a lot. It felt a bit weird to go from living in New York on Broadway to university, so I kept putting it off. Then, eventually, I had to give up the place.
I've been star-struck once. I'm a strong believer that everyone's just a person. Whether you've seen someone on screen do something amazing or they're super famous or whatever, everyone's just a person, and they do exactly what all people do.
There's so much pressure on young people to go to university when they're 18 or 19, but actually, in the grand scheme of it, I don't think it matters to do it at that time.
I started acting when I was young, and I didn't go to drama school. It was always something that I did alongside going to school and being a normal person.
I loved history and Eastern European politics.
Playing weird and quirky characters, like those with weird nuances, I find very interesting.
Let's just say musicals aren't really my thing!
I was doing one of my first plays at the Royal Court, and Matt LeBlanc came to see the play. He came backstage afterwards, and I couldn't speak. I kept trying to, but no words came out. I just kept thinking, 'That's Joey from 'Friends.' That's actual Joey from 'Friends!'' It was so embarrassing!
I've set the bar high in terms of having a very feminist attitude towards how I present my body.
I actually fall asleep really easily. I'm a bit of a scaredy-cat, though, I have to make sure that all the doors are closed, the front door is locked three times, and then make sure everything is covered and look under the bed.
