Eva Green finally felt like she could ''breathe'' when she dyed her hair aged 15.

The 'Casino Royale' star has confessed she felt compelled to colour her hair ''blue-black'' as a youngster after being inspired by a ''weird'' friend of her mother Marlene and has stuck by the decision into her adult life as it makes her feel ''more like [herself]''.

She explained: ''I wanted to change something. You know, like when you go through your teenage years. I hated school. I was a good student, but I just wanted to breathe in something new. I was in awe of a friend of my mum who had dark hair. She was quite weird, beautiful. I was like: 'Oh wow, I'll go to the hairdresser and try that.' So I went there, I dyed my hair blue-black and came back home.

''It took me a while to get used to it, and then I actually really liked it. I felt more like myself. It's weird.''

The 34-year-old star added that hairstyling has become extremely helpful to her when it comes to getting into character an set.

The raven-haired beauty - who is currently filming Tim Burton's 'Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiars' - told WWD: ''Hair defines your character, your state of mind. At the moment I'm in a Burton film, and it took weeks and weeks to find the right hairdo.

''It's kind of a weird character. Her name is Miss Peregrine, so there is a bit of a birdlike hairdo in her. It helps you to create the character when you find the hairdo. It's also like a costume. [It] helps you tremendously to find the character.''