Anna Friel's career has been on a roll since she swapped wild partying with her supermodel friends for domestic bliss with fellow actor David Thewlis. She tells James Rampton about the night that changed her life.

  A nationwide survey found that Anna Friel was "the most fancied young TV personality of the 1990s". For much of the last decade, she was portrayed as the ultimate media babe, forever out partying with celebrity friends like Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, the Gallagher brothers, Robbie Williams and Chris Evans.

Although it was exaggerated at the time, Friel is pleased to announce that the whole party-girl reputation is now very much a thing of the past. She no longer goes out on the town with her old supermodel and super-lad pals. "I've not seen them for two years - our paths don't cross any more", she says.

"I'm a bit boring these days", she continues with an endearing giggle. "At the ripe old age of 25, I'm settled. It's Coronation Street and a cocoa every night for me now !"

She attributes this new-found domesticity to her boyfriend of two years, fellow actor David Thewlis, the 38-year-old star of such well-regarded work as Naked, Seven Years In Tibet, Divorcing Jack and Gangster No 1. Friel says that he has brought a welcome stability to her life.

The couple met at a dinner with mutual friends. "He came back that night and never went home", Friel says, before waxing romantic: "We're pathetically soppy and hug and kiss every second. He is my love and he is my life".

An elfin beauty in a floaty black dress, Friel is happily tucking into a plate of potato wedges in a bar near the Clerkenwell flat she shares with Thewlis. Perched on a leather sofa, she has the sort of looks that could stop traffic and a genuinely magnetic aura about her.

The actress, born in Rochdale, the daughter of two teachers, has been a star since the age of 16 when she joined Brookside and soon became the country's famous fictional lesbian, Beth Jordache.

But she has never lost her down-to-earth attitude. For instance, she laughs off the idea of herself as a sex symbol. "David knows just what I look like first thing in the morning", she chuckles. "I find the image flattering - as long as it's naturally sexy. I don't like posed sexy. Quirkiness is sexy - that look which comes with a quirky little smile."

The actress is similarly level-headed about celebrity. Now that she's with Thewlis, she has no need for an endless round of premieres and parties. "People invite us out, but we just look at each other and say 'No, lets stay in'. We only want to see each other in the evening."

Thewlis proved a rock when Friel suffered an agonising ruptured ovarian cyst during filming on the Isle of Man 18 months ago, and had to be rushed to hospital. "All the crew went back to England", she recounts, "and I was left in this hospital on the Isle of Man. The anaesthetic made me feel really depressed, and I was just lying there feeling miserable. Thank God David was with me, I don't know what I would have done without him."

Despite being only in her mid-twenties, Friel is already talking about tying the knot with Thewlis. "Of Course that will come", she declares. "I know I'm with the man I'll marry, but not quite yet. These things happen when the time is right. It's the same for children. At the moment, it wouldn't be a good time to put myself out of action, work-wise."

After a few years of failing to find the right man, Friel is pretty content with where she's at right now. "I'm in a really good place", she says in a jokey American accent. "It's to do with maturing. I'm calmer now - I used to be a right worrier. Bing in a settled relationship has made a massive difference. I was on my own for three years and, although there was lots of speculation, I didn't have a boyfriend. I'm just really happy; David is a fantastic man."

This new maturity is also reflected in her work. Friel has not always made the best career choices - neither Mad Cows nor Rogue Trader set the world alight. But for the past couple of years, she has been on a roll, pleasing public and critics alike with her work.

First, she wowed theatre audiences in London with her alluring appearance in the title role of Lulu, and on Broadway with her seductive performance as a stripper in Patrick Marber's hit play, Closer. On seeing Friel on stage, Jack Nicholson declared that he would be unable to rest until he had slept with her.

Then last year she starred in Me Without You, an affecting film about an intense friendship between two young women. The actress was garlanded with critical praise for her part. The Guardian, for example, described it as "quite easily Friel's most accomplished cinematic performance so far". Meanwhile, Sandra Goldbacher, the director, enthused about Friel's charisma: "She's this incredibly dynamic presence. She really lights up the screen".

Friel confirms that she is now happier in her work. "I'm loving my career. I just feel more confident these days - especially after the theatre stuff. I feel I've proved myself within the industry by doing two plays. It shows that you don't have to have formal drama training to be respected. Also, you learn a lot on stage. It forces you to break some of those habits you develop in front of the camera".

Her confidence may grow even more now because she has just delivered another winning performance as photojournalist Lucia Merritt, in Fields of Gold, a gripping BBC drama co-starring Max Beesley. In the two-part serial, Lucia investigates a conspiracy involving the government, factory farming and genetically modified (GM) crops.

It's another role Friel has clearly relished. "It's been so great", she beams. "David says he's never seen me so happy coming home in the evenings from a job". She was also pleased to get her teeth into a piece that tackles such topical issues, and hopes that Fields of Gold may have some educational value. "A lot of this drama is inspired by facts that need public attention drawn to them, and TV is the most powerful communication medium we have. I did loads of research for the part because I wanted to be well-informed."

Preparing for the role, Friel spent time working as a press photographer. She covered several news stories - notably the funeral of the anti-apartheid activist, Donald Woods. She was concerned that she might become the object of her fellow snappers' attention, but was delighted when  they turned out to be extremely welcoming. They even lent her a step-ladder.

"They were absolutely great", she recalls. "They were just pleased I was doing proper research. It's made me a bit softer about the paparazzi - it's actually quite a hard job."

Even though she obviously learnt a lot from making Fields of Gold, didn't Friel see returning to television as a retrograde move ? "Not at all", she argues. "Look at Pete Postlethwaite, Judi Dench and Jim Broadbent - they all do telly. Let's not be snobby - as long as it's good telly, it's fine. Anyway it's not like I'm going back to Brookside. That would be a huge step back - because my character in that is dead ! I'd have to come out of the shower saying the whole thing was a dream !".

In any case, after the Broadway success of Closer, Friel is now very much in the market for serious Hollywood roles. She narrowly missed out - to Cameron Diaz and Heather Graham respectively - on major-league parts in Gangs of New York and From Hell.

But she didn't have to fret for long; she has just landed the female lead in TimeLine, Richard (Lethal Weapon) Donner's big-budget adaptation of the Michael Crichton bestseller about time travel. Although she is looking forward to the prospect, it doesn't mean that we will be losing Friel to Hollywood for ever.

"I don't want to live there, " she asserts. "After Closer, I had the opportunity to do big teen movies there. They put together packages for you saying 'If you do two teen movies, then you can have the lead in something more weighty'. But I didn't go down the Teen Wolf 4 route. I'm becoming a better actress and if you want to progress, you have to be more picky".

There's no doubt about it - Friel is a 24-carat-gold star. To underline the point, she holidays with Sting and Trudie Styler in Tuscany, has dinner with Madonna, and shows Dustin Hoffman the sights when he comes to London. In addition, there are no fewer than 13,700 websites with her name attached.

But for all that, Friel remains defiantly un-starry. She has no desire to hang out at Soho House with shed-loads of actors or to play the celebrity party circuit. All that interests her is personal growth - in both her professional and private lives.

"My ideas and theories have developed. I'm turning into a young woman now I think. I'm very happy about the decisions I make," she concludes. "I guess you could say I'm growing up".