London, July 24 - French actress Audrey Tautou has revealed she wanted to be a zoologist and study monkeys when she was growing up.

'The Da Vinci Code' star admits acting was never her ambition until she reached her late teens and started to enjoy socialising, reports imdb.com.

'I didn't plan to become an actress. I had no clue fame would land on me. As a child, I wanted to study monkeys but I changed my mind with the onset of hormones and suddenly I was a teenager and I found partying more interesting than nature and got into art and theatre and movies,' she said.

Tautou mainly works in her native France because she prefers the anonymity it gives her compared with life in America.

'I like working once in a while in Hollywood because it's like a holiday but I am happy in France doing what I do... I am happy with my life, I have enough money, I like to be myself. I like to dance when I am drunk and have a good time. I don't go out much. I stay with my friends. This is what I like,' she said.