Jessica Brown Findlay

Girls in scripts are often pretty but brainless, or geeky and no one likes them, so it's great to find richer roles. Chalk and cheese aspects of people are very interesting to play.

I'm really into strong, female roles - but they don't have to necessarily be loud - I'm just as interested in introverts too.

I love when people become obsessed with 'Downton.'

Sometimes when a scene is written or directed to be shouted or played incredibly angrily, I always think it's way more terrifying when someone is fuming and talks in a very calm way. I always want people to shout at me if they're angry - it freaks me out that whole thing of, 'I'm not angry I'm just disappointed.'

I trained as a ballet dancer till I was 18, so I would really like to get back to it. I'd love it if there was a part that meant I could do both acting and ballet, as they're both so close to my heart.

There's a reason hobble skirts are called hobble skirts. You literally can't move very far in them.

At 17, we all think we know what we're doing.

You don't automatically assume everyone will fall for a period drama.

I don't know if I'm so righteous.

Before I go on stage, I knock three times. Three is my lucky number; I once went into an audition and was number 333 and got the best part ever.

I'm hungry for a cold and mean character. I'd love it if someone thought I could play gritty. I want to play a baddie - someone really scary.

Ever since I was young, I've read Austen and the Brontes. My friends laugh, but those books are always so tragic and wonderful - those stories, they're just incredible.

I remember stealing some pic n' mix when I was seven; when I got out of the shop, I burst into tears.

I trained as a ballet dancer and fell in love with Rudolf Nureyev; I thought him the most beautiful creature. My mum had to break it to me that not only was he gay, but he was dead.

I've got four piercings in my left, so we've dubbed my right one the 'period drama ear.' I have to be filmed from that side when I do emotional close-ups in 'Downton.'

I have endless playlists on my iPod so will throw on, say, Bruce Springsteen or The Smiths, depending on what kind of day I'm going to have.

I do so many things. Like when I was younger, if I drove past a house that I didn't want to live in, I'd hold my breath. Driving around somewhere like Slough I'd go blue in the face.

I don't mind giving everyone a shock - including myself.

Unfortunately I had an ankle problem and underwent three operations.

The first episodes I actually read for 'Downton,' Sybil was really intimidated and hadn't come into her own. So it's only in Series Two that she's become so headstrong. In general, I find it exciting to play strong, female roles because they're shocking.