THC: You've played every role from an animated monster to a queen; what role did you have the most fun with?

HM: Monsters University was great fun. I’ve always been a massive fan of John Lasseter and Pixar movies…. If they had existed when I was young, that would have been amazing. I came to them as an adult but loved them just as much. That’s what’s brilliant about those movies: they can be enjoyed just as much by an adult as by a child. It’s genius strength of hand to achieve that…. I also just did a film in France, which was a great deal of fun, called “The Hundred-Foot Journey,” which won’t be coming out until later this year, but that was great fun. It was a lovely light movie, filmed in a beautiful place.

THC: Have you always wanted to become an actress?

HM: Yes…. It was something I was focused on from a quite early, young age—about 13 or 14. I have to say I never imagined at that age that it would be a realistic thing…I didn’t know anyone in the business, and I was living in a small dormitory town—very, very suburban, mundane kind of world. Just it seemed to be dreaming the impossible dream really.

THC: Were those around you—your peers and your family—supportive of your decision to pursue acting?

HM:  No, not at all. No, my parents absolutely not, and rightfully…I have no complaints about this, but they absolutely thought I was mad and stupid really…. I had trained to be a teacher, so their feeling was that I could get over my madness very rapidly as soon as I didn’t get any work, and then I could be a teacher and I could be secure. And they were absolutely right, but the reality was, I never thought that. I started acting as soon as I left college and never stopped.

THC: It seems as though you’re always saying you secretly want to be the “bad girl” or a “badass.” Where does this urge to be bad come from?