""I have these slumber parties with my father and when we can't sleep we stay up all night trading beauty tips. He knows all about the good creams and masks."

{About her favorite smell] "Those smells that remind me of home. I can smell my dad [Steven Tyler] from a mile away. I can smell it whenever he's worn my clothes. He has this ambery smell that just melts into him."

[on playing Arwen in Lord of the Rings:] "It wasn't until I came back home after such a long time away that I realized how much hype there was about this. I get to play someone 3,000 years old. I'm 23, so that's quite an acting challenge."

"I've been told that if I'd lose weight I'd have more work, but I refuse to submit myself to those standards. To the rest of the world, I'm slim, and I like the way I am."

When I did Stealing Beauty (1996), I was just a kid. I'd done a couple of movies, but I'd never been to an acting class in my life. But what I took away from it more than anything was the sense that, even though I was the central character, it was my job to get completely lost in the film. I had a real awareness of Bernardo Bertolucci as a filmmaker, not just a director, painting a canvas in which I was just one element.

Subtlety is my favourite thing in cinema. It lets you dream. When everything is on the nail and on show, it leaves no questions in your mind. I find that so boring.

Clothes have become too important and films are saturated with fashion. So you find yourself wearing designer clothes that aren't relevant to your character. I'm always so intrigued by Christopher Guest and his movies, like Best in Show (2000) and A Mighty Wind (2003). He hires the actors and they all come up with the story and the concept, improvise. And they are all responsible for their own hair and make-up. They buy their own clothes, are in control of creating their characters. I would love to do that.

"Life excites me. I'm not talking about appearing in movies or doing interviews, but just little, normal, everyday things. Getting out of bed. Getting dressed. Making food. I find it all exciting, you know?"

"I don't live a very posh life. There are no drivers waiting or people doing everything for me. I pretty much live like a normal person. . . . It's not good to have a life without responsibilities, you know?."

"It's cool to be compared to her [Elizabeth Taylor], but honestly who gives a damn?".

"There were times when I would get mad at him (Viggo Mortensen) beacuse he would push me harder. There was a weekend when I got really sick and had a horrible flu, and that was my one and only day to sleep and recover and not work. We were supposed to go horseback riding together and I cancelled it because I wasn't feeling well, and Viggo gave me a really hard time about it. So I went, and it was one of the greatest days of my life. It was actually the one time, while I was riding, that I really broke through to the other side with the canter and becoming more comfortable on the horse. I had a beautiful day and am incredibly grateful to Viggo for pushing me further. He taught me so much about that, about really being willing to submit and submerge yourself into making the film and the character work."