My Secret Life: Hattie Morahan, Actress, 29

The house/flat I grew up in.... detached, in the middle of the Devil's Punchbowl in Surrey, which is about as idyllic as you can get. The valley behind is like a back garden. It was a great place to go off and explore when I was young.

When I was a child I wanted to be... either a writer or an actor. I swung wildly between wanting get up in front of people and be the performer, make the crowds laugh, and shutting myself away in a room and writing stories.

The moment that changed me for ever... was seeing Steven Dillane as Hamlet when I was a teenager. Members of my English class felt he'd thrown away wonderful lines, which was highly frustrating; that was the point! And he was just so natural and effortless.

My greatest inspiration.... is both of my parents, but in very different ways. My work ethic I get from my dad, who is thorough and rigorous in all that he does. My mother's a fantastic actress and very giving, bringing happiness to those around her.

My real-life villain ... I'm not very good at out-and-out condemnation, I prefer to see things from all sides; but those who are unnecessarily rude really piss me off!

If I could change one thing about myself... I would need less sleep, I'm embarrassingly and maddeningly inept when under-slept. It would be fantastic to have extra hours in the day.

At night I dream of... anything and everything. My nightmares are either about being late or the typical actor's dreams: onstage, in the wrong play, with nothing on and not knowing my part.

What I see when I look in the mirror... something/someone a bit chaotic and haphazard. I've never been particularly well-groomed, in fact I'm a bit mystified as to how people find the time.

My style icon.... is a Taiwanese friend of mine and fashion designer, Mei Hui Lui, who always looks exquisite and utterly unique. It's fabulous when people wear clothes they love, it's an attitude that inspires rather than the clothes.

My favourite item of clothing... continually changes. At the moment I love a chocolate-brown sparkly wide belt, which I picked up in a second-hand store in Berlin.

I wish I'd never worn... you can't regret that kind of thing, that's the most entertaining thing about fashion! I love seeing how deluded I was and marvelling over all that misplaced effort.

It's not fashionable but I'm potty about the Belgian singer Jack Brel, I could listen to him sing the phone book.

You wouldn't know it but I'm very good at... moon-walking. I was obsessed with Michael Jackson at school and every day would practise my dance on the lino at school. Who am I kidding? I'm probably no good at it at all.

You may not know it but I'm no good at... giving up a book part-way through, even if I'm not enjoying it. It's bad manners, like breaking off a conversation halfway through. Perhaps I should learn to be more ruthless.

All my money goes on... books. I read in bursts between jobs as I can't focus on anything else while I'm working.

If I have time to myself... I walk around London, it's like going off on a little adventure every time. My cousin gave me a book of routes and their history, called Walk London and I've recently done Clerkenwell and Greenwich.

I drive/ride... a bus. However, I did recently - in California - blow my entire budget on a convertible Mustang. It was my Bonnie and Clyde moment (without the murder, I should add).

My house/flat is... a converted open-plan warehouse in a mews in north London. It's a very creative space but not always practical if one of you is filming and has to leave the house at four in the morning.

My most valuable possession is... my health and that of my loved one. It sounds corny, but next to that all other concerns are irrelevant.

My favourite building... is definitely the National Theatre. My parents took me there as a child and I recall even the distinct smell of the concrete, though I never before knew that concrete had a smell.

Movie heaven... is a good Hitchcock thriller: the danger, the escapism! North By Northwest, preferably. There's a brilliant sequence with Cary Grant driving drunk down a hill, which has me in hysterics every time.

A book that changed me... recently, my eyes been opened by Chris Ware, the graphic novelist. His books occupy a space between film, poetry and art, both nuanced and melancholic. I haven't read anything like them before.

My favourite work of art... are the Bernini sculptures, which I saw recently in Rome. I found them miraculous and improbable, you get a vertiginous thrill just being near them. They really stayed with me.

The last album I bought/downloaded... Rachel Unthank and the Winter Set, a Northumbrian folk band with elegant, earthy arrangements.

The person who really makes me laugh... is Larry David, or Paul Merton, or Sarah Silverman. I love well-observed humour about human vanity and people's delusions.

The shop I can't walk past... Daunt Books in Marylebone and I'm also a complete sucker for Fresh and Wild, which a friend renamed Fresh and Wildly-expensive, and I'd be inclined to agree. But I still can't resist their coconut and raisin oatcakes.

The best invention ever... is the camera, and by extension, the cinema, mainly for allowing us to see the past, storytelling and giving knowledge and beauty.

In ten years time, I hope to be... happy, healthy, creatively-fulfilled and maybe have some more walls in my house, at the moment there are none, so it's not a big ask.

My greatest regret... I try not to, you have to learn and then move on, and if you can't make amends and accept what's happened, just move forward.

My life in seven words... hectic, happy, peopled, challenging, varied, gastronomic and unpredictable.

A life in brief

Hattie Morahan was born in 1979 in London. An awardwinning actress, she studied English Literature at New Hall, Cambridge. She won an Ian Charleston award for her part in The Seagull at the National Theatre and joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 2001. Following an acclaimed performance as Elinor Dashwood in Andrew Davies’s BBC adaptation of Sense and Sensibility, she appeared in the Hollywood blockbusters The Golden Compass and The Bank Job. She lives in north London with her partner and stars in The City at the Royal Court from 24 April to 7 June. For tickets, call 020-7565 5000