Is there any truth to the rumours you were suffering an eating disorder? You looked very thin in some photos.

I was kind of shocked anyone would even notice me - I'm very under the radar. So when my mum rang and said: 'Are you OK?', I was like: 'What are you talking about?'

So you're fine healthwise?
Oh, yes! I think I was probably just stressed at the time from working hard on Damages and lost weight. But that was it.You've been based in New York for a few years. How have you been able to keep your relationship with Aussie actor Brendan Cowell going?
He's been in New York with me pretty much the whole time. I did Knowing last year in Melbourne, but he was there so it's been fine. We have a few weeks apart here and there, but generally we have pretty much navigated it. He's a writer too, so he can just come hang out and write, and I can do Damages. And he really likes the city so it's been good. The past two years we've been pretty much together the whole time.When it comes to love, do you believe in fate?
I think lust is a huge thing that possibly gets mistaken for destiny sometimes. There are so many different types of love that I feel destiny with romance is sometimes a dangerous combination. But I'm a sucker for a romantic film and cry every time I see When Harry Met Sally, so I probably do have a side that believes in that.
Boyfriend Brendan Cowell has been by Rose's side as her star rises.How often do you get the chance to go back home to Australia?
Oh, I go back often. It's definitely my emotional home. But New York has become a second home and I really love the city and I have a good group of friends there now. It's an easier city for me to live in because you can walk around and you have life outside the film industry. I just make the best of where I am. But I miss my family and my friends - they're all in Sydney. I try to go back a lot because I do miss them.How do you deal with all the attention of being famous?
I love fashion and dressing up so I always try and have fun and see the ridiculous side of it and how decadent and how fun it is. I'm really just a character actress so it's a pleasure for me to do the fun things like the shoots and the premieres - and the rest of it just isn't part of my life.Your latest film Adam, about a woman and her neighbour who has Asperger syndrome, highlights the importance of honesty and trust. How much do you value those things in your life?
All you have really is honesty - whether with work or with your relationships. It's interesting because the film does bring that up in terms of: how honest are you? Perhaps you think you're actually more honest than you really are. How many times in a day do you lie? I endeavour to be honest but sometimes honesty is almost a selfish thing too. Sometimes it's more constructive to tell a white lie. It's a very interesting part of life.How did you and your Adam co-star Hugh Dancy get the chemistry just right in the film?
The director was really in there with us, making it genuine and finding an affection for one another. He was really keen to make it seem like a tender sort of gentle beginning. But with chemistry you never know. You think you've got great chemistry with someone and then you see it on screen and it's terrible - couldn't be more dull. It's so weird, the more I work, the more I realise it's sort of out of your hands. You can work as hard as you do but chemistry is molecular.You started acting when you were pretty young. Did you always want to be an actress?
I was the youngest of four, so I was a young child performing for the three other kids, trying to get their attention and impress them. I always loved that side of it. I started classes when I was eight and it was so fun. Then I figured out I could do it for a living.Is it hard to find someone who is straight with you in Hollywood?
Yeah, absolutely. But I'm a cynic and a pessimist so I don't believe anything that anybody ever says to me. It's probably an incredibly Australian quality of mine. I go in expecting nothing and I'm amazed if anything happens.