Rebecca Hall has told how she's inspired by actresses like Katharine Hepburn when it comes to her film career.

The Transcendence actress - the daughter of stage director Peter Hall and opera singer Maria Ewing - said she always wanted to act and that her mum passed on a love of Hollywood's Golden Age.

She told Gotham magazine: "I always aspired to do movie acting. Movies, particularly black and white movies, were a big part of my growing up.

"My mum had a sort of Golden Age of Hollywood obsession. My heroes were film actresses like Bette Davis, Barbara Stanwyck, Katharine Hepburn."

The English star also revealed that films feel like her own thing, after growing up around the theatre.

"When I first started out, it was kind of exciting territory because it was the area where my family could not have a reaction entrenched with experience, and that was kind of refreshing for me. Instinctively, I knew it would be something that was mine," said the 31-year-old.

Rebecca, who is starring in a production of Machinal on Broadway, was interviewed by actor Ethan Hawke for the magazine.