Olivia Cooke found shaving her head for 'Me and Earl and the Dying Girl' ''humbling''.

The 'Bates Motel' actress plays leukemia sufferer Rachel alongside 'Project X' actor Thomas Mann in the comedy-drama and has admitted shaving her head for the role taught her a lot.

She said: ''Sales assistants would follow me around shops thinking I'd steal something when I had a shaved head. And when I 'd leave the bubble of the film set, I started to notice I wasn't getting attention from the opposite sex, which I hadn't realised I was used to. It was bizarre for a while but also humbling. You need a lot more substance than just being pretty to be a good person; it was a coming of age thing for me.''

However, the 21-year-old beauty confessed she had ''a bit of a meltdown'' the night before she shaved off her brunette locks.

She told Marie Claire magazine: ''I was meant to wear a bald cap but, two weeks before shooting, I thought about all the bald caps I'd seen in films and how I'd always been able to point them out.

''The night before we shaved my head, I was weirdly excited, and then I had a bit of a meltdown so I had some vodka. I've now got a kind of mullet thing going on.''