Michelle Dockery
I regret not learning to drive when I was younger.Collection: Learning
'Expect nothing and hope for the best' is my mantra. A drama teacher called Joseph Blatchley told me that, and it's the best advice I've had. If you keep an open mind and don't expect too much, then you won't be disappointed.Collection: Hope
The journey matters as much as the destination. By engaging in the moment on set, I've stopped rushing and now find pleasure in the collaborative process - the characters, the costumes - rather than worrying about the finished product.
I do believe in one true love.
At the age of eight, I auditioned for 'The Sound of Music' and made it through to the third round, where we all stood in a row like the Von Trapp family and had to sing.
Cooking can cure almost anything.
I don't mind wearing a corset, it informs your posture, changes the way you move, you can't slouch.
My family keeps me sane. I try to talk to my mum every other day. After I get off the phone, I have a renewed sense of clarity, so I guess a problem shared is a problem lost. It's important to me to keep them close.
I come from a very working-class background, so my family would have been downstairs in the past, as opposed to upstairs. People are often quite surprised to hear that, that I'm not actually posh.
I think some period drama can be quite alienating, but 'Downton' isn't. This is going to sound quite, um, pretentious, but someone said that it's like a soap written by a poet.
I really enjoy singing, it's entirely different to acting because I'm just being myself.
I don't get recognized all the time, but it tends to happen more in America, and people are so lovely when they do.
When I was a child, I went to stage school three times a week in the evenings - singing, ballet, tap, modern and acting, and I loved it.
I think the success of 'Downton' is partly because there are effectively 18 leading characters, all given equal importance, so it's enormously involving on many levels. But also, it's a new story. It's not like Dickens or Austen, where everyone knows the denouement.
If Shakespeare was around today I would ask him out to dinner. The only thing I don't like about him is the way he did his hair.
'Othello' was my first Shakespearean discovery. I was obsessed with drama at school, and I studied the play for my English GCSE. Desdemona is the part that everyone wants, but Iago's wife Emilia is the one I've always been drawn to.
Shakespeare's work is like a good song: you never really forget the main lines.
Shakespeare and his work will always be relevant. He wrote those pieces hundreds of years ago and we haven't really changed as humans, have we? We have to deal with love, honour and adultery now - people were the same then, too - that's what's so wonderful and powerful.
I get so excited about reading a new script.
I can be so blown away by story lines.
In the early '20s, with the war over, there was a period of celebration, and you can see it in the fashion.
'Downton Abbey' has become this huge thing, and I really enjoy the success of it, but I sometimes find myself on the outside looking in, which is sort of a healthy way to look at it so you don't get too caught up in it.
I've had moments of thinking maybe I should go on Twitter. It's something that I've been shy about, and I've thought that maybe I should do it.
Laugh at yourself - a lot. My mum taught me not to take myself too seriously.
For years, I was often afraid to speak up when I didn't fully understand a script. I'd tie myself in knots.
My mum taught me always to see the funny side of things.
I love discovering tiny streets.
I love cycling, but if I could find a way of building something above the streets for cyclists, that would be amazing. We need even more space.
In my twenties, I was a bit of a worrier; it bothered me what people thought of me, what job I was doing.
I worked out; I moved 16 times from the age of 19, just hopping about from different flats, because I couldn't always afford to stay.
I had dance training from a very young age, 3 or 4... It taught me how to present myself, about preparation and working in an ensemble, and it's something that carries with me to this day.
I think so often you can come out of drama school and get thrown in the deep end.
I wasn't an academic. I hated maths and science at school. I couldn't concentrate.
I'm quite surprised at how out of control I can be on stage because, actually, I find I like to be in control in life. It's quite freeing, really.
I just want a really varied career, and just to keep going, really.
Silk scarves are my thing. I tie them to my handbag or thread them through belt loops or wear them in my hair. Never round my neck, though.
I want a house with a garden, but slap bang in the centre of London. Next door to a sushi bar.
The whole acting game can sometimes be a bit false, and you meet a lot of people in it for the fame - so there's nothing I love more than going back to Essex.
It's a bit of a history lesson, being an actor. I was in 'Burnt By The Sun' at the National, which was set in Stalinist Russia, so I discovered all about that. You learn so much as you go along.
The way I see it, the third series of 'Downton Abbey' is all about change and how each character adapts to those changes.
I'm taller than most actresses, so most corsets tend to be too short in the body.
My dad worked all sorts of jobs when I was growing up and finally ended up as a surveyor; my mum delivers meals to old folk around where we live. We didn't have much money when I was growing up, but I had a very happy childhood.
I'm the youngest of three sisters, and my parents have always encouraged all of us to do whatever made us happy.
People will consider me a part of their lives for however long 'Downton Abbey' lasts. It's a lovely thing to feel as an actor.
Until I was 27, I'd maybe been to America once and, like, Ibiza when I was 18. That was it.
You learn an incredible amount doing theatre, not just about to behave.
I'm quite into the French way - simple elegance with just a suggestion of sexiness, nothing vulgar.
I don't have to walk around in hats or find remote places to go for lunch! I don't get recognised that often.
I'd like to do something that involves music.
We take so many of our freedoms for granted nowadays - I can travel where I like, I can do any job I want - but I think chivalry has been lost a little bit.