The 26-year-old actress - who recently ended a relationship with Oscar-winning actor Sean Penn, which began just months after she filed for divorce from her husband of two years Ryan Reynolds last December - is untroubled by her sex symbol status but still seeks to maintain a private life, despite her fame.

She said: "I feel comfortable as a young woman - a young, modern, liberal person. I feel comfortable with my sexuality.

"However, I am protective of my private life. I don`t think that if you are in the public eye your life is public. I am an actor. But you can`t take things too seriously."

The blonde beauty also confesses she is a "dork" who doesn`t feel particularly "mature" as a person.

Referring to Robert Redford - who she starred with as a teenager in the ?The Horse Whisperer? - she added to The Sun newspaper: "I don`t feel mature. I always feel about the age I am. I know Robert Redford described me as, `13 going on 30`, but that`s not how I felt at the time.

"I am still dorky. I watch cheesy TV with TV dinners and, at one point, could not stop watching `Jerry Springer`. I also like cheesy movies. Arnold Schwarzenegger, for example."
sections: Celebrities