With a lot of films people are sitting on the outside looking in but I want the audience to get a bit more intimately involved with what's going on so that they maybe can experience it a little bit more intensely.

I read Freud's Introductory Lectures in Psychoanalysis in basically one sitting. I decided to enroll in medical school. It was almost like a conversion experience.

Going to a party for me is as much a learning experience as you know sitting in a lecture.

I was taught by my father. He was head of the primary school so I went to his school until I was 11 - I was the youngest of four daughters and we had all been taught by him. But I didn't really enjoy my secondary education that much probably because I am a very physical person and don't enjoy sitting at a desk all day.

But I didn't really enjoy my secondary education that much probably because I am a very physical person and don't enjoy sitting at a desk all day. I just dragged myself through GCSE and A Levels so it suited me very much to go on to drama school which was very active.

I think violence cynicism brutality and fashion are the staples of our diet. I think in the grand history of story-telling going back to people sitting around fires the dark side of human nature has always been very important. Movies are part of that tradition.

Right now I'd love to be sitting on a Greek island somewhere because of being Greek American eating great octopus salad and some fantastic lamb. Or sipping a little ouzo. I think the Mediterranean diet is one of the healthiest... Lots of nuts vegetables fruits fresh fish lean meats yogurt.

I'm a fan of horrors. I love the ones that make you jump. My girlfriend hates it. I've been dating her for one-and-a-half years and I'm crazy about her but she's terrified of horror films. Not the cute 'Will you hold me?' way but she's weeping. With 'House of Wax ' we'll be sleeping and I'll go to the bathroom and she's sitting up waiting for me.

The people on my mum's side of the family are atheist intellectuals who are ueber-proper. My dad's side of the family are missionaries who are more comfortable sitting around in sweatpants than they are in a five-star restaurant. But those two influences converged in my life.

I wasn't sure how my dad would react. There was an agent sitting behind them and he told me he was embarrassed to watch the scenes. My parents have always been very open. They trust my decisions.