Elizabeth Debicki

Television is the medium that's allowing women's stories to flourish.

It was quite a thespian - 'thespy' - sort of household. My mum had a dance school, and my dad now works in a theatre, so I spent a lot of time going to see dance as a young child - it was just a part of who we were.

On a red carpet, you really want to feel your best, so to work with a designer who will shape a dress to your figure and take into consideration your opinions is really a blessing.

I have always been a fan of Alex Perry's work. His gowns are so beautiful, elegant, and always uniquely crafted to the woman wearing them on the red carpet. They are a true piece of art-meets-couture.

I've always been a big Cate Blanchett fan. Such a wonderful role model, the way she carries herself through her profession. She has so much grace to her, and so much intelligence. I've also always been a big Katharine Hepburn fan.

One of my favourite things to think about is, if you could be invisible and go back in time, where would you go? I've always said ancient Egypt. I would love to see them building the pyramids, and I've always had a real fascination with medieval time and monarchy in medieval times.

Dancing gives an innate physical awareness - it's physical training. Acting feels like the same medium but just with words.

Majorca is this destination where, you know, you have a lot of money, but you want to go somewhere quite exclusive. And the culture of the island is still traditionally Spanish. It hasn't been infested by tourists. I think, in the '20s or something, an extremely wealthy person built this little kingdom of villas.

On a film set, everything's done for you. You get to a stage where you can't even remember the last time you made yourself a sandwich. The crazy thing is that, as actors, we're trying to portray the human condition, but we're often not living in reality.

I think I've developed a sort of ADD for geography now. When I've been in a country for too long, I'm like, 'I think it's time to leave.' I don't know what that's going to do to me in later life.

Sometimes I have a nervous breakdown over my suitcase - over socks - because your brain just goes, 'I just can't pack again. I can't.' You're looking at your suitcase going, 'I'm in five countries in two weeks, and it's four different seasons.' That's when my brain melts.

I am very tall, and when you're a teenager, you want to be like everyone else. I used to slump a lot; it's very human at that stage to want to be part of the crowd and not want any part of you that is sticking out.

I feed off variety. I don't want to repeat myself if I can help it, but once they've seen you doing one thing, directors often just want you to do it again.

I loved Catherine Deneuve, Sophia Loren, and Ursula Andress. They had an incredible strength but fragility at the same time, especially Catherine Deneuve, who had an aloofness that impressed me.

My parents were ballet dancers, and I did a lot of ballet, too, so I think I learned quite early on how to hold my body. Although I do recall desperately wishing I was shorter at school.

As a child, I got bored with my surroundings, so I would be another person for a little while.

I was very new to working in front of the camera when I started shooting 'Gatsby', so I set myself the mission of gleaning as much information as possible out of the much more experienced actors. The cast was astoundingly talented.

Every time I see a good play or watch a good movie, I have the same feeling I had as a child of wanting to be that person on stage or wanting to run through the forest with a big dress on.

Acting is a craft to me: I just think you get better the more you do it. And then the irony to that is your doing it is not in your control. If it was up to most actors, we'd work all the time, and we'd always get better. But it's not in our control, so we have to wait to be given parts to do.

There is something about a theatre room that is really like a laboratory for trying things and failing, because you have time to do that, and you can explore something deeply and discard it if it's not working.