The wardrobe is always the last piece of the puzzle. When you step into the clothing, that's the final step to figuring out that character.
Mia Wasikowska
Doing an accent removes you from yourself and reminds you, every instant, that you're playing a part.
I was shy at school.
I like to think of myself as an observer.
It's amazing how much you can absorb on a film set.
When you look at magazines, you feel so inadequate and so small and you feel really imperfect, when you're constantly seeing these images.
Photography, for me, is something I can control fully. It's wholly my own expressions.
I love Portland. I think it's one of the best cities - I obviously haven't been to very many places, but I had one of the best times I've had on a set there.
Once you're put out there in the public eye, people feel a certain ownership over you.
With both acting and ballet, often you can't just choose when you do it, whereas a painter can go at his own pace.
Someone once told me to believe 5 percent of what everybody tells you.
I like to be absorbed in what my character's doing.
All the time that I'm acting with an animated character, I'm looking at a tennis ball or sticky tape or an eyeline or a man in a green suit. There's no real environment, just this electric green that's blaring into your brain.
I always try and learn as much as I can from different departments on a film set.
You never choose the way that you're raised, it's just the way that you were raised, but you do get to a certain age where you're in a position to question the expectations of you and the way that you've been formed by your surroundings.
I've been honoured to portray such intelligent and sophisticated roles.
With a corset on, you can't breathe properly.
As a teenager I was very anxious. I had a lot of energy and passion that I wanted to channel into creative things, and I always felt like I wasn't achieving enough.
I like to do projects that challenge me, and hopefully in turn challenge the audience, or open your eyes to something you're not aware of.
I would hope everyone would be a feminist.
I'm a huge sucker for comfort.
It's really rare as a teenager to be offered a role that actually resembles what it's like to be a teenager, because there are so many stereotypes that might be attractive to watch, but make you think: 'Who is that? Who has that life at 16?'
I think it's really important for actors to have another creative outlet, or for anyone, really.
As an actor you have to wait for someone to cast you, so you're relying on the business.
I always collect a bunch of images for every film that I do, that reminds me of an essence of the character, or the time that they live in, or what they're experiencing.
I get restless easily so I always want to keep working, but I am trying to pace it as well.
I was a bit of a loner as a teenager. I never went to a single social event, because they terrified me.
Fame is useful in certain ways, because it helps you get more roles.
I like characters who remind me of someone I know.
The jobs I enjoy most are the ones where I never feel like I'm performing. I'm just feeling things.
Dance is such a stressful environment.
I like my anonymity - that when I meet people they don't know me.
I want to just do my job and do it well.
You have an awareness of your body and how to use it and I think that if you can embody a character physically it's another really useful tool.
I got the first thing I auditioned for - a guest role on two episodes on 'All Saints,' and I don't think I had ever been that excited.
Dance has such an intensity to it. You become, in a way, an intense person.
Coming from dance, I feel acting is - I'm not going to say easy, because it's not. But the dance world is more hard-core.
My mom used to have a lot of European cinema playing in the house, so I'd catch bits and pieces of films.
What I like about film is it explores imperfections.
Although I'm not particularly troubled myself, I do have a lot of empathy for troubled characters.
I was probably a bit of a mimic when I was a kid, and I used to imitate people.
Acting really suited me because I could connect as an actor to emotion.
There comes a point in your life when you realize your parents aren't perfect.
I'd love to go off to college to study photography, art history, humanities.
I don't consider myself a starlet or a Hollywood person.
I love Europe.
Feminism is just about equality, really, and there's so much stuff attached to the word, when it's actually so simple. I don't know why it's always so bogged down.
Traveling to Russia and Germany and being able to see the world at a young age was really cool for me, and I really liked that.
With dance, you learn to channel nerves into energy, excited energy.
I always start a film thinking I know how to do it, then I learn all over again.
