Emily Booth: Actress and TV presenter

ACTING is like being paid to be a child again. On the set of my latest horror film, Doghouse, we had what we called the Splatter Room, which you went into stark naked and had several people spray you with red paint. Doing that when you're hung-over was a bit grim. We worked hard and we played hard, so the cast were often feeling awful.

The disused hospital Doghouse was filmed in was where Bela Lugosi and Alec Guinness died. During filming we lived there, in old patients' rooms. The green room, where the actors hung out, was an old operating theatre complete with tables and equipment. The place smelt of death, which was apt for a horror.

I recently filmed a pilot for Celebrity Ghost Hunting, which was fun; I went in sceptical, but whatever was going on, whether it was everyone getting over-excited or activity of some other kind, we all got emotional. During the séance, I started crying for absolutely no reason. I promised them I wasn't faking. If I could fake crying, I'd be a better actress.

I was raised by a pair of antique dealers in Hastings and it was a normal upbringing. As a child, I was loud and cheeky - not that naughty, but emotional. Nothing's changed.

I used to be in a band. It was me and another girl, Eileen Daly, who's also a horror actress, and our group was called Jezebel. We did one song with ex-Siouxsie And The Banshees member Steve Severin. We were going for that really trashy 1980s, Shakespears Sister-type stuff. It didn't last long.

Bad drivers make me angry because I've recently had one crash into the back of me. I also get the sense newspapers and news channels want to keep us scared and anxious. From swine flu to the financial crisis, so much of it is an absolute joke. Because of that, we're living in an uptight, angry society. I think that's why I left London - I'm a hippie girl at heart.

I believe in balance. I go through phases of being intoxicated and unhealthy, and I love it, but I also enjoy the opposite. Today, I went out running for an hour along some cliffs where I live and it was gorgeous. I don't eat meat, although I do eat fish, which I feel a bit guilty about. I enjoy drinking, though. I'm a red wine girl. White wine makes me angry, apparently.

The film that has impressed me most recently was Sam Raimi's Drag Me To Hell. It felt like a proper cinema experience, where everyone jumps en masse at the same bits. You can feel the filmmaker manipulating you. People forget that Sam Raimi knows exactly how to control the audience's senses.

I don't believe in God in the traditional sense, but I do like to be spiritual. People need to believe in something and it's quite dangerous to quash that. I am a bit anti-religion though - it just tends to cause war.

My guilty pleasures? Apart from those I can't mention, I like watching Jeremy Kyle and Come Dine With Me. I would also say playing with my toes, and cheese - I can munch a block of cheese like an apple.

I'm divided about old age. Part of me can't wait - I'm going to get enormously fat, have lots of cats, start carrying a shotgun and go around telling off youths. The other side prefers to live fast, die young. So we'll see.

Interview by Sean Bell