The following questions and answers are from an interview with Sophie Winkleman by Alice Olins of the TimesOnline:

Q: What is your favourite item in your wardrobe and why?
A: Brown Spanish riding boots by Penelope Chilvers. I wear them with everything and, most importantly, they are flat.

Q: What is your fallback outfit?
A: Those boots, my Radcliffe jeans and a very battered cream leather jacket from Armani Exchange - that isn't very cool, is it?

Q: What is the piece of fashion or beauty advice you would offer?
A: Sleep. I look about 400 years old if I haven't slept. I also eat too much and end up buying weird clothes that I think will change my life.

Q: Biggest fashion faux pas?
A: Floaty Ghost dresses. I wore them at university; I'd walk the streets of Cambridge thinking that I looked poetic and wistful. I actually looked homeless.

Q: What aspect of fashion do you dislike the most?
A: The Topshop phenomenon has totally passed me by. I find it very overwhelming in there.

Q: How do you think people perceive you from the way you dress?
A: I don't know whether I have a defined-enough look to be perceived as anything. Being an actress, I might be auditioning to be a monkey breeder one day and an opera singer the next. I dress to suit the part, so my overall look is a bit jumbled up.

Q: If you could steal anyone's wardrobe - past or present, fictional or real - whose would it be and why?
A: Anna's from The King and I, or Scarlett O'Hara's in Gone with the Wind. I think all those fiercely corseted dresses, with huge crinoline skirts, are so romantic. Life would be very passionate if you swished around in one of those.

Q: If you could change one part of your body, which would it be?
A: I would nab my mother's emerald eyes, I have everyone's-got-them-haven't-they? brown ones.

Q: What are your five desert island staples?
A: Acqua di Parma soaps to bring lemons to my senses, the Oxford book of word games, English muffins, salty butter and a lifetime's supply of cookbooks. Can I have a kettle, too?

Q: What is a Day in the Life of Sophie Winkleman?
A: Wake up, have gallons of Earl Grey, read a script in bed, go to an audition, have more tea, go home, make someone play Scrabble with me, then go out for a yummy pizza at my local Italian."

Further interview below...

Sophie Winkleman, 27, has appeared in films and television series including The Chronicles of Narnia, Peep Show and The Trial of Tony Blair'. She plays Princess Eleanor in ITV's The Palace – available on DVD from today.

If I weren't talking to you right now I'd be: baking a cake, probably a walnut coffee one.

A phrase I use too often: "Chicken". No one really likes it, but I can't stop saying it. I don't know why it keeps coming out of my mouth.

I wish people would take more notice of: older people. I get quite upset over how neglected they are in Britain.

The most surprising thing that happened to me is: being mistaken for the characters I play. The other day in Waitrose, a woman told me "you shouldn't be so horrible to your brother". I realised she thought I really was the evil princess in The Palace. My role must have been quite convincing!

I am not a politician but: if I were, I would never have entered the completely illegal and utterly unfounded Iraq war.

I'm good at: drawing. And singing songs from musicals. I'm obsessed with them. Sometimes I think I'm a gay man.

I'm very bad at: having a sense of direction. And I've no self-discipline. I can't diet.

The ideal night out is: a night in at my home with my friend Coggie.

In moments of weakness I: smoke cigarettes.

You know me as an actress, but in truer life, I'd have been: a baker who wrote children's books about magic cakes. When I try to concentrate, I really enjoy writing.

The best age to be is: 18 to 19 is definitely a brilliant age. Equally, 50 or 60 should be good. Everything is done, you can relax a bit.

In a nutshell, my philosophy is this: try to exercise gentleness, kindness and humour and you cannot go far wrong.

Interview with Sophie Winkleman by Susannah Peter.