The first time I applied for drama school I was 17. I applied to six drama schools and didn't get a recall anywhere. So I moved out of my parent's home, lived in Birmingham and got a bit of life experience and re-applied to four drama schools and actually got into all of them. So in the first round audition, you do two pieces; one classical; one modern and they are two minutes in length each. And then the second round is the same two pieces with a song. And then the third round is a day's workshop audition with a group of other auditionees. So that was the process and then you hopefully get a call from the principal.

I will have done research myself. I will have done a lot of work on the character in terms of what the script gives me, before I've gone into the rehearsal room. But I believe in working instinctively, and I think there is so much you are going to get from the director and from the other actors, that if you go in having made too many choices too soon, then you may as well just do it in your bedroom. You just becomes sort of a bubble. So there is a lot of work that can be done, a lot of preparation to be done before the rehearsal room, but I think you have to go in there open and willing to receive the ideas of the director and of your fellow actors.

It is always a sign of a well written script when it goes in quickly. It is much harder to learn badly written dialogue than it is well written stuff. I like to be over familiar with the script by the time I get into rehearsal. I won' t be off script; I don' t tend to do that. Usually during the process of rehearsal is enough for it go in and then I have to go back and check the detail and check I' m not learning it wrong, if you like. One thing I do like to do for that reason, relatively early on, is to write them out, which some people really baulk at, they don' t like that idea. But I write up a cue sheet.

There isn't an average week at drama school; every week is very different. The mainstays you can guarantee will happen are you working a minimum of 8-9 hours everyday. That is contact time, so it's not like university. A lot of time in the college and you'll be going between different classes. Your classes will last an hour, maybe two. You'll go to movement classes, voice classes, speech classes, acting classes. You have an acting teacher who stays with you for the first year. So you stay with that one person. The most contact time you have is with that teacher, so you have about nine hours a week - three, three hour sessions - with your acting teacher. Then you've got dialect classes as well, one to one singing, You have Alexander technique classes which work on your posture and the way you use your body.

So it is a very varied day and you are running from one thing to the next; maybe going to a dance class and then maybe going to a speech class afterwards. It is very hectic and very physically demanding, and mentally challenging as well. You can go from a physical class to a text based class; you've got to keep on top of many things at once.