Quotes from Esme Creed-Miles

'Hanna' has grown up in mother nature's beautiful wilderness and that's what she knows. So for someone like me who has always had a life in the city, it was a chance to look beyond social conventions.

I think the best privilege that I have in terms of having them as my parents was not just the doors that opened, but, I think, the stability to be graceful in the face of rejection, which is something that actors get every single day, and knowing it's not personal and not having that be part of your psyche.

You have your assigned sex but gender is more of a construct and I think one that is incredibly disillusioning and I think when we buy into those constructs then we start to maybe, unbeknownst to ourselves, cause real damage to our psyches.

I definitely struggle with a disillusionment towards my body and my gender.

Even the basics of learning how to throw a good punch is very hard.

I was thrown into this world of training, and weightlifting, and boxing, and cardio. It's amazing to feel your body being capable of that.

What is special about 'Hannah' is she's complex. She takes risks and she's smart, and she has a lot of love for people.

The hardest part is the nature of working in film and television; the hours are very tough.

Young action heroines feel in service of male gaze, rather than being the full complexity of a human being.

Obviously, in different circumstances, I definitely related to this idea of feeling claustrophobic and wanting to discover things for yourself. I think that's something that all young people can relate to.

The way I feel seen by the opposite sex is sometimes really detrimental to me. I'm very aware of how I'm constantly being sexualized and objectified in their eyes which makes me feel worthless.

The way that I work is I didn't go to drama school or anything like that so I have no choice but to be instinctual because I don't have a tool kit in the same way.

Even as a kid I remember seeing 'Minority Report' and just crying my eyes out. It was horrible what was happening to her. That was my mum!

It's lovely to escape myself and play someone who actually inspires me and gives me strength.

I always found growing up that, even inspiring female characters or complex female characters in TV and film... I often found that their complexity was actually just another facet of their sexuality.

I don't really leave my house. I'm a very introverted person. I don't like going out. I don't like parties.

I want to be involved in lots of different things. I want to write and direct, and I make music.

I actually did a lot of yoga because I found it helped with my core strength and flexibility, which are two things you absolutely need when you're doing martial arts.

I had a few months of physical prep where I was training six hours a day - I was doing an hour and a bit of yoga, I would do a couple hours of cardio and weight-lifting, and then I would do an hour or maybe two of martial arts training.

As a young woman, my own experience of looking at myself in the mirror is something that's plagued me in lots of ways.

The idea of women having a complete hold on their lives is still alien in a lot of places. So, it is important that we keep telling such stories where women are shown both physically and mentally powerful.

'Hanna' doesn't maintain social norms. She doesn't have those boundaries. She speaks her mind and is very physical and funny.

I believe in assigned sex but not necessarily gender. Gender is a learned construct that is detrimental to both sexes.

I think growing up, the assimilation of most cultural conventions typically encouraged by a heightened awareness of gender and sex encourages a sort of separation of the self. What's so special about 'Hanna' is that her upbringing has negated this indoctrination; she's almost absolved of the pressures of gender or gender itself.