Claire Danes has "never" been "cool".
The 40-year-old actress admitted she was "properly odd" when she was at school and didn’t know how to "hang out" or relax away from her studies.
She admitted: "I was weird. I’m not being cute – I was properly odd. I didn’t know how to hang out; I had to be applying myself all the time.
"I have never skipped a class in my life, my socks are always pulled way up to my knees. I’m supremely nerdy; I was never cool."
The ‘Homeland’ star – who has sons Cyrus, seven, and Rowan, 17 months, with husband Hugh Dancy – didn’t worry when she celebrated her milestone birthday last year because she’s finally reached the age she’s always felt.
Asked if turning 40 had mellowed her, she told Net-a-Porter’s digital magazine Porter: "I always felt the age I am now, so it’s nice to catch up with my actual age. It feels appropriate."
Although Claire began acting when she was a teenager, she took a break when she was 18 and enrolled at Yale to study psychology and admitted it was the right move because it stopped her being so "frightened" of other women.
She admitted: "It was really good for me to go to college, because I was a bit frightened of women.
"On film sets, I was always surrounded by adults, so the last time I’d spent any real time with other girls was in junior high, so they froze in my mind as these intimidating, cruel creatures. Then I went to college and discovered, ‘Oh, people grow out of that.’"
To see the full interview, read Porter at http://www.net-a-porter.com/porter/article-1f38db77905dbfd9 or download the NET-A-PORTER app for iPhone, iPad and Android.
Claire Danes was never ‘cool’
