It sounds stupid, but there's nothing like walking down the street and seeing a building that's older than 100 years old. I think London - not to sound pretentious - like New York, it's a big melting pot for all things and it's just got this energy that you can't find anywhere else.

I learnt a blend of different martial arts - not in great depth, obviously - but various moves such as kicks, blocks and punches. It was all quite fun.

I was painfully shy, so my aunt suggested to my mum that me and my brother go to Stage 84, a performing arts school in Yorkshire. I've probably romanticised it in my head, but I seem to remember that in the space of an hour's drama workshop, I was transformed. I went in really shy, and I came out full of confidence.

With Shakespeare, because you invest so much time in working on material, it always sort of stays with you to some degree.

I think the American West really attracts me because it's romantic. The desert, the empty space, the drama.

For a lot of the time I was in Berkeley, I was single. I was living in a kind of collegiate apartment by myself - it was like a protracted summer vacation. So at least in hindsight, I have gloomy emotions attached to Berkeley, whereas I started coming to New York because I was dating someone, and it was very exciting and romantic.

In the same way you pick idly at chips, promising this is literally your last one, you may be in a relationship that you know isn't going anywhere, but you're hungry for love, and it feels less frightening than nothing.

I'm a very observational storyteller, and I'm always relational - a lot of stories stem from relationships, whether it's me with my husband, me with my mom or my siblings.