Gina Bellman

I carried on acting during school holidays and was all set to go to drama school when I was offered my first professional job appearing in 'King David' with Richard Gere.

My average day on 'Leverage' starts at 5 A. M. and ends 12 to 14 hours later. An hour drive to the set and back sometimes makes the day unbearably long. You have to grab a few minutes to yourself where you can.

One of the things that takes a bit of getting used to on an American series is having a different director, and often writer, every week.

I'm not really that keen on mainstream; I'm not interested in doing the normal films. I do tend to go for the quirky, different scripts.

I eat tons, three full meals a day, and I never go to the gym. When I was a child, my geography teacher said, 'You may be slim now but if you carry on eating like that, you'll end up being really fat.' Fortunately, I really don't think I've changed much in the past two decades, so that teacher was an idiot.

It's always fun messing around with costumes and stuff. You know there is an element of acting that you've got to dress-up; that's part of it.

I don't like crowds or attention.

Any friendship or relationship is about a language.

Fans believe they have a relationship with you, either through your TV character or, more reasonably, through the tweets you may have exchanged. In a way, you have gotten to know them. You learn about people's kids, families, pets.

One of the things you have to be acutely aware of when shooting episodes out of order is your character's relationship with the other characters.

I love those connections that make this big old world feel like a little village.

I love acting, and I have no desire to direct.