Your role in Hannah is completely different than any other role you have done. What did you learn about yourself personally or as an actress?
Hanna is a simple minded fresh young girl and because she’s not judgmental or prejudiced at all and that certainly made me think about things in a different light. As an actress it felt like a collaboration between me and Joe Wright and this film helped us develop into a terrific working relationship.

You mentioned you worked with Joe Wright previously. How was the experience working on this movie? Did you find yourself exploring the subject matter differently [than when you worked on Atonement]
We’ve always have a really good relationship, and he never treated me like I was a kid, and he certainly didn’t when we did Hanna together. I can see in myself that I have definitely grown as an actor and I think he can see that too. I guess it left us with more creative freedom, and I was able to try more creative things and I was a little bit more in control of what I could do.

What do you feel you learned working with such a great cast?
We really did have a terrific cast on this movie, and everyone did something really interesting with their performance. With Cate [Blanchett], she is a wonderful actress and to observe how she works on set is quite fascinating. She is very focused and professional. You can tell she really cares about what she does and as a young actress that is a great thing to see.

What attracted you to this role [in Hanna] in the first place?
The fact that it was different and more challenging. And the fact that I got to do more physical activity. I’ve never gotten to do [a lot of physical activity] before in a movie and I’ve always been pretty athletic and I thought it would be fun.

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What is it that you look for when you choose a project?
You certainly have to think about the entire project, if it’s a well-developed script, etc. For me, it’s quite an impulsive thing, and I can feel it in my heart if it’s something that is interesting and something I’m passionate about. I always find if I read a script and I’m still thinking about it hours and hours later, it must be something that I’m interested in. I also like strange and dreamlike stories. I think it’s good to do reality type things but its’ good to have an escapism too.

How much of the stunt work did you do on your own?
I pretty much did everything. Unless there was something really really dangerous that my insurance wouldn’t cover, I did everything myself.

What was it like traveling from location to location?
It was great. It’s always wonderful to travel. I have been lucky on the films I have worked on so far because I’ve gotten to go to some really interested places. This film we were in three places—Finland for the exterior stuff, and we shot in Germany and Moracco as well.

How did you handle the big questions presented in the film?
It all comes down to imagination and the being of a person. I found it was a bit tricky at first, but it was quite important to wipe my own personal memory, because Hanna never went through those things and never really lived a life, and I found that [wiping my memory] helped to portray the innocence and naivety of her.

Since you worked with Joe Wright several years ago, did you find filming Hanna was easier because you were used to his style?
I think it was easier, but it was never difficult to work with Joe. We understand each other very well, and he has even gotten a bit braver as a director. It was nice to work with him again, and I like the idea of working with the same people over and over again. I had never done and action film before and neither had he, so it was great to go in that direction together.

Would you be interested in a sequel? What do you see in the future?
I think it would be really interesting to do a sequel and I think it is something they are talking about, because the reaction has been so fantastic. If they were to develop the character as well as they did in the first one then it would be a great thing to do, but I don’t think I would want them to do it just so they can make money off the sequel….I would like to go to college in a few years and make a Irish film in Ireland, I haven’t done that yet.

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