Where have you just come back from?
‘New Zealand: I was working on North Island, filming a movie called I Am Mother, then went down to the South Island and travelled around for a week. It’s one of my favourite places on earth, the definition of magical. My jaw dropped the entire time I was there. I like South Island better, but you can’t really go wrong if you visit the coast of North Island, because there are peaks and water everywhere. New Zealand has so much unadulterated nature and that’s rare. To tread on land that no person has ever set foot on before…’
Where in the world have you felt happiest?
‘Pretty much wherever I go, because I get to travel with loved ones and my dogs – I just wish my dogs had frequent-flyer miles. When we were last in London I stayed near Hampstead Heath and became obsessed with it. In all the time I’ve spent in London I had never been there, but the production team suggested it because of my dogs and, oh my God, I’m never staying anywhere else.’
Which is your favourite city, and why?
‘Forever New York City. I love the diversity and the sense of a shared habitat. You could explore it every single day over a year and still not see everything.’
Describe your favourite view
‘Anywhere outdoors where there’s a view as far as the eye can see of trees or mountains or sky. In New Zealand, we splurged on a helicopter ride and went to the southernmost part, which truly is the end of the world – just mountain after mountain after mountain, which felt unbelievable, prehistoric. I have travelled the entire world and never had that feeling.’
Describe a memory from a childhood holiday
‘We didn’t really go away much because my parents worked and didn’t have summers off, but on weekends, because I was a swimmer and a gymnast, my mother and I would travel through Washington State and camp so we could get an early start. That made me love road trips; any time I feel overwhelmed by life, the first thing I want to do is get in a car and drive. Growing up in a place like Washington State definitely informed who I am and is probably why I love the outdoors so much. It’s a great place to be a kid.’
Where did you go on your first holiday without your parents?
‘I’ve been working since I was 15, so was independent enough to go to Italy for the summer when I was 16. Then, when I was 18, I got a part in The Next Karate Kid. It was my first starring movie, and that took me to Boston. That was my moving-out-the-house trip.’
What’s the smartest hotel you’ve stayed in?
‘I went to the Ritz in Paris with my brother, and they put us in the Coco Chanel Suite. The actual room between our two bedrooms was so big and so decadent that we had never seen anything so extraordinary in any single way, shape and form. Those Parisians know how to do things.’
Confess to one thing you’ve taken from a hotel room
‘At the beginning of my career I took all the shampoos, the conditioners and the shower gels every opportunity I got, as many of them as I could. I made Boys Don’t Cry for just $3,000 so I had no money and would even ask the maids if I could take extra.’
Which foreign phrase do you use most often?
‘Mais oui! Mais non! When you’re in Paris and you don’t speak French, it’s the one thing you hear all the time and it just makes me laugh. My brother and I do a lot of that noise that French people make, that little thing they do, that “pffff”.’
Tell us about a great little place you know
‘The Four Seasons in Santa Fe. It’s off the beaten path and very boutiquey. I’ve been going before it was even a Four Seasons.’
What do you pack first?
‘Always, always, always sunscreen. I take it everywhere, in my car and my bag. And I’ve developed a clothing line with Yummy Track Pants that I wear travelling; but I can also dress them up.’
‘I lost my heart in...’
‘The first overseas place I travelled to was Italy, so it will always have a special place in my heart. But I also lost my heart to a tarte au citron in Paris.’
What would you most like to find in your hotel mini-bar?
‘Kombucha, which you never get in any hotels, and potato chips. I have never eaten a potato chip I didn’t like.’
Most regrettable holiday souvenir?
‘Montezuma’s Revenge. Plus, I got some really cool carved wooden spoons from South Africa that I use for salads. But then I thought it would also be good to bring home some wood carvings, and those do not translate. “Wait, what is that?” “Oh, that’s The Thinker as a wooden sculpture.”’
How do you relax?
‘Hiking is part of relaxing to me, strangely, because it’s a way to let my mind go. I love walking through the big redwood trees where I grew up. And wherever I am, I try to find somewhere to smell the trees and flowers and bark and moss and rain… It’s one of my biggest joys.’
‘Trust’, directed by Danny Boyle, is out on Sky Atlantic this spring