It's good for your body to have a break. Even when you're training, you have to have a cheat day every week. The body reacts better to training if you give it intervals of not training, or you relax the diet.

I had a very difficult upbringing.

In the future, I would like to do more films with contemporary themes. Perhaps comedy, which is something I have done in theater but not in cinema.

As much as my parents were worried about me moving to London at 17, they could see that I was hungry to find my path. And it probably helped that they saw me succeeding at it, slowly but surely.

I always wanted to get into proper shape.

I always wanted to sing, as a child.

You never get over an ex, but you learn to live with it.

Every time you get in shape for a role, there's a different way to do it so it doesn't get boring.

I come from south Wales. A place called Aberbargoed.

If you're gonna start a story, you start from the beginning, right?

I used to take my car and go down to the South Island for five or six days and climb glaciers and jump out of planes and jump off bridges and go white water rafting - a bit of thrill-seeking.

'The Desolation of Smaug' stands alone as an action/adventure epic movie. It's visually stunning, and the 3D is incredible. Plus, it's directed by Peter Jackson, and he's extraordinary.

I think starting a cinema career late in life has more advantages than disadvantages.

Sometimes I eat at, like, 9:30 at night and then go to bed at 10:30 and wake up at 4:00.

Gemma Arterton in 'The Master Builder' at the Almeida - she was absolutely brilliant. Ibsen is difficult and quite hard to follow, but she just brings the stage to life.

You have to have a lot of money to go to college. It's not cheap.

I think heroes are the people that go into houses when they're on fire and save people in hospitals.

I was a weed. Such a skinny little weed. I just couldn't put on weight; I couldn't put on muscle. I was the oddest shape. And I thought that was it: that's how I'd look for the rest of my life. And I'd beat myself up about it so much. But you change an awful lot. You're 16. Your body's not even halfway to what it'll end up being.

It's a lot of fun being dressed by designers and surrounded by publicists.

Living in New Zealand, it's like a different world - it is a different world. It's very, very cool.

Peter Jackson is a wonderful man. He's a great director. He's found his niche in life.

I come from the countryside. I come from a bunch of horticulture family members. My best friend was a farmer's boy.

If you decide you want to work in the film industry, you just have to bite the bullet and take other jobs until the proper jobs come in.

If I have to look a certain way for something, I know how long it's going to take me do it.