Asa Butterfield

When you're working in the industry, and you're working with people who are well known and are so regarded, you do just pick up on things. Talking to people and hearing their stories, you learn a lot.

One of the things that I really enjoyed playing with Ender was how he's constantly struggling between his brother and his sister. It's like he's got two sides to him. And I've always wanted to play a darker character, and in this film and in the novel, Ender has his moments where he isn't a glorified hero.

I work and come home and just have a type of normal home life. It's what I've always wanted. I've never felt like I'm pressured into doing something and that I've got loads of responsibility.

I've played a worrying number of orphans, children who have been abandoned or had something terrible happen to them.

For me, I value connection a lot, talking to people and connecting. Don't get me wrong: I enjoy having my own time, but I think it's really important to have that connection, so living on Mars would be a struggle for me.

As an actor, depending on who you are, you might be stopped on the street and might not get all the privacy you want, but I'd rather have that than no human connection whatsoever.

I just read the scripts that come to me, and I see the ones which I really kind of understand and connect with, whether that's a science fiction or a period piece. It doesn't really matter as long as they're original and I have something to do with the character.

I like science fiction. I am quite a technologically kind of up-to-date person. I like seeing what the new developments are.

That was the most important thing to me: making sure 'Gardner Elliot' was likeable and funny and interesting. I took my time before filming to chat with Peter, the director, to create this character.

My little sister, who is four, can work my mom's iPhone better than she can.

When you're acting, you do have to prepare yourself for doing that. You have to leave behind - or you try and leave behind - anything that's going on in your personal life.