A lifelong chain smoker, beginning at the age of 14.
She was taken to her father's home country South Africa when she was six months old. She attended a Jewish school in Johannesburg, then a convent in Pretoria, before spending a year in New York when she was 11.
She grew up with an accent a mix of South African and a Brooklyn drawl, so was sent to a drama school in Bournemouth learn to speak 'better'.