Were you at all intimidated by playing this character, with people perhaps seeing Katya as an extension of yourself, with all the surface similarities?
If the character convinces them, then I’ve done my job, but frankly, like you say, she’s a very different personality. Obviously, the circumstances are similar. She’s an actress. I’m an actress. She’s known more by reputation than for her films and I think that’s something I can definitely relate to, but she’s actually complex, layered and manipulative and fascinating. As an actress, it’s just a perfect role to play, just such an ideal film. And also to have Steve Buscemi in the same room acting opposite you is just a dream come true.

You spent a lot of time together. I hope you liked him!
I loved him. You can tell we got on when you see the film. You can tell there’s good energy, chemistry and all of those things, but it is hard not to get on with him; he is such a wonderful man. He had a lot of work on his hands but we had this great intensity in a two-week rehearsal, where he did a lot of directing and so when once we got to shooting we were at a place where we were very comfortable with the script, comfortable with what was going on and therefore we had room to improvise and move around

I was going to ask you if you could improvise with something like that? It was so open and with only two people to direct…
Yes, we did. You add something, you play around, because it was two of us and because we were not creatively restricted. It was three hand-held cameras and there were no marks to hit, and there was no continuity, because they were constantly capturing every angle of one scene. So, when, for example, I ran and dive onto the sofa I just decided to do that in the moment and they caught it.

Is Katya troubled or just a young girl having fun?
I actually don’t think that she is troubled. I think she knows who she is, she understands where she’s at and she knows what she likes. She’s very strong, conniving and manipulative but only in retaliation to his sort of manipulation. But I don’t think she’s troubled. I think that she is absolutely existentially content with who she is and why she is.

And that is what you like about her?
Well, I just think that’s one of the things she is and I respect that quality. It’s not like me. She’s complex, so layered and it sort of happens instinctually and a lot of it happens there in the script. We were doing eight-minute takes and you forget there are cameramen there and then there was thirty page of dialogue a night. It was a nine- night shoot, the entire film, so really, it felt like doing a play.

Are journalists sometimes badly prepared, like Pierre in the film?
No. I have had some who are absolutely completely disinterested in any opinion that I may have but are unashamedly content to ask things that I would find embarrassing to ask someone I didn’t know. That’s just a lack of respect. I have been in those situations, but now I don’t have any time for it.  Before, I was so eager to please, but now you know who is interviewing you and I can control which publications I can speak to.

Did the subject matter of the film create any understanding, appreciation or sympathy for journalists?
I think that journalism is a really important medium and that it gets abused and therefore has a bad reputation, but journalists have a massive, important and powerful responsibility. Certain journalists abuse that power. I think it is an obviously incredibly important medium.

Do you ever decide beforehand what are the things you’d like to talk about?
I think I like it when people want to talk about things other than the personal. That’s always appreciated. If people are interested in views on work and all of that and I like playing games, the Stones vs The Beatles; Star Trek or Star Wars. I love all of those. But, you know, at the end of the day if it’s a good journalist, then it is a good conversation. It can be quite thought provoking and interesting but I am not mad about talking about myself. I always try to turn it round on someone else. It’s interesting, but you are being analysed to a certain degree, and some people obviously feel understandably threatened by that. It is something I haven’t analysed but I have met journalists and have had really good conversations. I’ve also done interviews where I have felt totally taken advantage of and felt really unhappy about the outcome.

So who’s stitched you up recently?
It usually happened before I had a publicist. Just certain journalists, you just know what they are after. Steve and I did a whole interview session in Sundance for this film and a journalist (take out LA Times) interviewed me. It was all about swag, the gifting that goes on at the festival. I didn’t do any of that, but the article was all about what I’d be given. It was nothing about the film, and it’s disappointing.

Being a popular subject for the tabloids, is that a help or a hindrance?
A hindrance. Definitely. I think as an actor, if you can retain a level of anonymity, then people are more likely to believe the characters you’re playing. The more people think they know about your private life, the harder it is for them to see you as anything but you, when they go and see a film. So that kind of attention isn’t great. An interview in The Times or The Guardian, or any more intellectual newspaper that you want to name, is useful, but someone getting a photo of you blinking and then saying that you’re drunk, well that’s not at all helpful to your career. And they do big smear campaigns, building you up and knocking you down. But really, in the bigger picture, people are starving, and there’s a war on. We live in a small island and while these things seem monumental at the time, and are big in the small world that you live in, in the grand scheme of things it’s not important to me. I’d take the media on if I see a window, but I’m not going to lose sleep over something I can’t control. There’s no point; essentially I’m a happy person and that’s what’s important.

Surely even journalists from the broadsheets still ask about your private life…
They do, but in a more interesting way. They’re seemingly more interested in what the effect is on me, rather than who I’m dating. It’s a more analytical approach, rather than just ‘Dish the dirt!’

Don’t you feel as though things are changing for you now?
I do, I sense that. Just Steve Buscemi phoning me up and asking me to be in his movie, that was amazing. Whenever I do feel down, I just think of that. He was one of my heroes, and if I’m good enough to be in his film, then that makes me feel like a proper actor.

So what did Steve Buscemi say when he called?
He called — which was amazing in itself — and he said that he was directing a movie, it was a two-hander, and would I be interested in reading it. I just said that I’d do it, there and then. He asked whether I should at least read it first and I said, ‘No, I’d come and make the tea on your film set, mate!’ And it turned out to be a fascinating piece, and while I was very uncool and very available, but if he called, you just say yes. He is so intelligent, and has huge integrity, as a man and as a filmmaker. He’s an all round great person.

How long was the entire process?
It was just nine days of shooting and then two weeks of rehearsal before that. It was very small, a little window. But it’s a great film and it’s the first time I’ve done something where I can appreciate it as a piece of art, and as his vision. It’s an interesting film for me, although I still don’t like watching myself.

I should imagine this film was very intense to shoot…
It was; 30 pages of dialogue a night, eight-minute takes, it was intense. But it was thrilling as an actor to really act, and throw yourself into something like that. It was a dream job.

What films of Steve’s did you most admire?
I loved Fargo; he was brilliant in that. But everything. I loved Trees Lounge, which he also directed, and Reservoir Dogs, and even in Con-Air and Armageddon, these big commercial films, he’s always brilliant. He raises the bar in all those films. But I do love Fargo.

Katya says that there’s always a winner and a loser in a relationship. Do you feel there’s some truth in that?
I don’t look at life like that; that’s too black and white. I feel like relationships are all about colours and grey areas. I guess when you split up there might be a winner and a loser. I try not to see life in that way. I never really understood that line, when I think of it. I guess it depends whether there’s game playing involved in the relationship, and with those two characters, I guess there would be. But people who aren’t manipulative wouldn’t be in a game-playing relationship. For the characters it’s a power struggle; it’s like playing with your food before you eat it. That’s how they are with each other, but I’m not that kind of person.

Is there an answer to Pierre’s question ‘What makes a man attractive?’
For me, it’s a sense of humour. If someone makes me laugh, then I find them instantly attractive, because I want to be around them. That’s the most important thing to me, not scars, not even psychological scars, because everybody’s got them. I know it’s a boring answer, but if people make me laugh, then that’s a big bonus.