In my early years, there were a number of experiences that made me decide I could not afford the luxury of just being an actress. There were a number of issues I wanted to address. And I wanted to use my career as a platform.

My gratification in working comes from the preparation and the building of the character.

How do you project a character if you don't have a sense of where she is from? I've always just gotten on a plane to go to the area to get a sense of what it is like, to smell it, feel the earth, hear people talk, go to the marketplaces.

Challenges make you discover things about yourself that you never really knew.

While I was at Cornell in engineering, I was an engineering co-op student, and that turned out to be very valuable because we'd go out every other term to work in industry and have that close association with industry.

My ambitions are to be the Stoke number one and England number one, but there are other things I want to achieve in my career as well.

I didn't know if I could have a career in fashion; I didn't fit in an obvious box.

I want to look back on my career and be proud of the work, and be proud that I tried everything.