Is it that classic thing of worrying about the small things, rather than focusing on the important issue? YES! Because I need to be giving my full attention to the film I’m working on, but I’m awake in my hotel room thinking about something else. You wonder, ‘Am I focusing on this one stupid thing because I have a greater anxiety about how well I’m going to do in a film?’ But I can’t control that, so you worry about what you can control.

Do you worry about the world around you at all? You’re going to send me into a tailspin now [laughs]. I feel woefully uninformed about things sometimes, so no. My friend Olivia Wilde’s got her whole conscious thing [Conscious Commerce, an ethical shopping site] and I’m like, ‘What am I? What have I done for anyone lately? Yikes.’ With Lena Dunham it makes me feel so lazy that she can give her focus and creativity to so many different things so wholly. She’s got that Beyoncé drive [laughs].

So you’re a fan of Lena’s? There aren’t enough good things to say about Lena, her book destroyed me. She is this lethal combination of incredibly clever and well-educated. I think that anyone who is brave enough to say something that most people wouldn’t is to be applauded.

Are you a reader? In fits and starts. With 10 girls in the same room filming Pitch Perfect 2 I got through one book – The Things They Carried [by Tim O’Brien]. But on Into The Woods I read about 10 books, because of the logistics.

What’s the last thing you read that really affected you? I read Charles Manson’s biography; it sticks with you. A friend had recommended reading The Psychopath Test [by Jon Ronson] and I was a little nervous about reading it because I thought it would put me in that same state again. It’s one of those feelings that I kind of love but also kind of dread. I remember reading One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest and thinking, ‘Oh, I’m going crazy now. My brain chemistry has been destroyed by reading this book.’

Are you in a book group? I tried to start a book group when I first came to LA to keep myself occupied. The cable had been shut off and the internet had been shut off and I was like, ‘OK, I need to find something cheap to fill my days.’ We read A Million Little Pieces [by James Frey] and then that book was so f**ked and there was the whole scandal that followed it [Frey later admitted to having fabricated some of the autobiographical details] so our little book club had a stain on it.

You’ve spent quite a lot of time filming in London, would you ever move here? I find London one of those cities that I’m just too soft to handle unless I had heaps and heaps of money. It’s so spread out. I don’t think I could handle it at this point in my life, it would break me.

What made you pick LA over New York when starting out? When you are a struggling – no, aspiring is a nicer word – actor, the quality of life when you’re on a budget is better in LA. I couldn’t have kept the lights on in New York. LA was a very practical decision!

Can you see yourself staying in LA long term? Whenever I hear about people having babies in New York or LA I’m like, ‘What?’ I’m not thinking of having kids but there is always that sense that someday you’ll go ‘home’, wherever that is.

You’ve worked constantly for the last few years, what’s missing from your CV? It’s hard to take a step back and see if there’s something I should be doing differently. At some point I’ll have to take a good six months off and not make movies.

How does the idea of that feel? Weird. But working for 14 hours a day for months at a time is not sustainable. Not being on a set means you can explore the world and enrich your life. It’d probably be wise to invest in those things.

Would you feel guilty? Yeah, both of my parents worked my whole life so the idea of not working is completely backwards to me.

Pitch Perfect 2 is in cinemas nationwide from May 15

Words: Helen Bownass

Images: Rex Features, Aaron Richter/Corbis outline

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