The Look (in The Mirror) - 5 June 1999

If someone comes along who is right that would be great. I don't want to end up an old spinster.

She's dreaming of a big white wedding, the only problem is she still hasn't found her Mr Right. But though she has been unlucky in love, Anna Friel's career has really taken off. Phil Tusler hears how the former soap star became the toast of Broadway, and why she's still an optimist in romance.

Anna Friel has her wedding all planned out. And as she stretches out on the sofa in her spacious 22nd floor apartment in bustling Manhattan, there's a faraway look on her face.

In the past few months she has experienced all the delights of New York, the city that never sleeps - a dinner date with Al Pacino, an indecent proposal from Jack Nicholson - but Anna's thoughts have taken her thousands of miles away to the remote Highlands, and her wedding day.

"I'm going to hire a wonderful castle in Scotland, which I believe you can do for about £2,OOO. There will be a moat around it so no Press can get in," says Anna, who is back on our screens tomorrow night in All For Love.

"I want to invite only the people I want, and I'd like to make a whole weekend of it. So if I get married on a Saturday, on the Sunday everyone can go out and ride horses, or play archery, or go and fish.

"Oh, and I'd like to come down the aisle to the song Stand By Me by Oasis. I know it's all very romantic and dreamy, but what's wrong with that? What's wrong with trying to live your dreams and trying to achieve everything you want to? We're always being told what we should and shouldn't do so much that we all become so mechanical rather than just going out and doing it."

So, Anna has the finer details of her big day all sorted out The only problem is, she still hasn't found her Mr Right. Though she has found a few Mr Wrongs...

In fact, at one time the former Brookside star was as famous for her disastrous love life as for her acting. First there was her well publicised split from Darren Day. They had been together for two and a half years, and shared a home in West London, when he left her for Coronation Street's Tracy Shaw.

Anna found consolation in the arms of singer Robbie Williams, but it was short-lived. He was spotted Ieaying a nightclub with a blonde while Anna was away filming in Ireland, and another romance bit the dust.

"Robbie came into my life when I was really down and depressed but had to smile and pretend I was fine," she said at the time. "He made me feel good about myself. We had a great time. He saw me as a stable person and wanted to be like me. I offered him an escape.

"I feel stupid that I didn't realise how serious his drug and alcohol problem was. We'd sit and talk but it was a huge responsibility and I wasn't there enough. Now, we're really good friends."

At the moment, while in New York as part of the cast in the Broadway production of Patrick Marber's Closer, there is, no one special in Anna's life. But despite her past setbacks, she hasn't given up hope of finding true love.

"I am at my happiest when I've got the feeling of being in love," she admits. "You can't beat a relationship when you just want to spend all your time with your partner

"What I don't want is a relationship where you get married and have that wonderful honeymoon period for two years and then it all dies down and becomes routine. I want to feel in love all the time.

"But at the moment I am happy being by myself and getting on with my own life without a man. If someone comes along who is right, and who I know instinctively is right without having to convince myself he is, then that would be wonderful. But I'm not going to go out there searching for it like I used to. I once thought I needed it. Now I realise I can get along happily on my own."

"I don't want to be some old spinster, I'd love to meet someone who would help me grow and flourish as a person. But I'm only 22. I've got a lot of time ahead of me and I want to experience all the highs and lows that life has to offer, I don't want to just float through it. That's not my style.

I probably scare men a bit because I'm confident and I say what I think," she adds, wrinkling her dainty freckled nose. "I think men are afraid of approaching me. Of course, I'm not really as confident or as together as I make out, as my real friends know. But that's probably the impression I give when I first meet people.

I actually flirt like hell and I love the idea of a challenge. Someone who is hard to get is a real challenge and that excites me.

I have been on dates over here but there's been nothing serious. I haven't fallen in love. I haven't really time for a relationship at the moment. Actually it's nice that people aren't talking about my love life. It got a bit boring after a while. I'm sure there are better things that people could be discussing.

"There are other things in my life that I'm concentrating on. Things are so busy because when I'm not doing evening or matinee performances I'm promoting all the other things that are going on."

That Anna is suddenly so much in demand is testament to her skills as an actress skills which at one time threatened to be overshadowed by her private life.

 She was just 16 when she became a household name as Beth Jordache, who shocked viewers with a controversial lesbian screen kiss. Then when she left Brookside, Anna added to her notoriety by getting a reputation for taking her clothes off. Candid photos in fashion magazines were followed by full-frontal scenes in the TV film The Tribe. She also acquired an image as a party girl, often spotted out on the town with her friends Noel and Liam Gallagher, Meg Mathews and Kate Moss. While all this kept her face in the papers, it did little to help her be taken seriously as an actress.

Then, just as she seemed destined to be another pretty-faced wannabe who had failed to make the leap from small screen stardom to greater acclaim, things started to go right. She was lauded for her role as Bella Wilfer in the BBC's adaptation of Charles Dickens' Our Mutual Friend, and proved a hit in the wartime drama The Land Girls. And today, the Lancashire lass is the toast of New York playing Alice the stripper in Closer.

She has been a hit there with audiences and critics alike, being nominated for a Drama Desk Award as best supporting actress, as well as being part of the Critics Circle Award that went to the whole cast.

"I auditioned for the play when it was in London's West End but I didn't get the part. Then, when it transferred to New York, they took me on. They said I had matured as an actress and lived a bit so they thought I was ready for the role," she explains.

"The critics have been very genuine in their praise and they're not exactly noted in holding back in what they think."

Her success is all the sweeter considering that she has wowed Broadway without having any proper dramatic training. Her only theatrical experience was attending an amateur dramatics workshop after school at 13. Closer is the first time she has appeared before a live theatre audience, and she was so nervous before opening night that she was physically ill.

"During rehearsals, I went through so much paranoia and insecurity and ridiculous thoughts, thinking I would never be able to do it. But with hindsight I think that was a good thing because by the time the previews began, I was able to enjoy it," she says. "I was shaking and sweating and, on one occasion, I was sick before I went on."

And ironically, considering she plays a stripper, she hasn't had to shed a stitch to achieve her present success. "I did visit some strippers before I took the part on says Anna 'I watched them perform but I was more interested in talking to them and finding out what they thought.

"I don't take my clothes off for the part but I wouldn't mind if I had to. The way I feel at the moment I could take all my clothes off on stage. If you look closely from certain angles you can probably see something. Thinking about it there are a few familiar faces you see in the audience regularly. I wondered why they were there.

"There was a time when I worried about nude scenes and taking my clothes off, especially when I did The Tribe. But I don't really worry about it any more.

"I know that if I take my clothes off for a role then more people will probably watch. But there's nothing I can do about it so there's no point in worrying."

She's not even particularly worried about inadvertently revealing a breast at the recent New York premiere of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. "I was trying to keep my jacket together all evening because I knew what picture the photographers were trying to do," she grins. "Oh, well, there's no point getting upset about it. There are more important things to worry about."

The "important things" to Anna are a wonderfully revealing mix of future projects and little things like Cadbury's chocolate and Typhoo tea that make her a little less homesick for England, and especially for her parents in Rochdale, Lancashire.

"People are so open and friendly in New York. There's something going on all the time," she says. "I've got my roller-blades and my guitar and we go swing-dancing in a club close to the theatre most nights.

"Mum and dad have been over for a couple of weeks too, which was really nice. They've always supported me and I think they're proud of what I've done. I know I'm proud of them."

With four movies and a TV drama out this year, Anna's achievements have been remarkable. Closer is showing to packed houses most nights, and Anna has found herself feted by directors and stars. She has been a regular face at top premieres and counts such stars as Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Gwyneth Paltrow and Liam Neeson among those who drop by for a chat. She has been wined and dined by Al Pacino, while veteran lothario lack Nicholson has famously said of Anna, "Until I sleep with her, I just can't concentrate".

Yet she remains refreshingly chatty and down-to-earth. Her anecdotes about her famous acquaintances are punctuated with references to how much she misses her parents, how she craves Marmite sandwiches, and her worries about that night's performance.

"There have been a lot of directors and other stars coming to see the show but I don't really want to talk about who they are. I don't want to sound star-struck or big-headed," she says almost apologetically.

"No one knew me in America. No one had heard of Brookside, and no one had heard about my love life. I didn't come with any baggage and that's what has been nice.

"They take me at face value. I'm only as good as my performance because no one prejudges me. Everyone's really positive over here and that's something I find refreshing."

This year we will see Anna playing the wife of jailed stockbroker Nick Leeson in Rogue Trader, opposite Ewan McGregor She is Hermia in a version of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, where she again appears nude and which also co-stars Michelle Pfeiffer and Kevin Kline. Her film Mad Cows, with Joanna Lumley, recently premiered at Cannes. And in Sunset Strip, which was shot in Los Angeles, she plays Tammy, a hip fashion designer. Meanwhile, her latest TV role is as Flora Gilchrist in the 19th century romantic comedy All For Love.

The production, which also stars Richard E Grant, Miranda Richardson and Jean Marc Barr, was filmed in Ireland, which gave Anna the opportunity to get back to her roots.

"I'm half Irish," she says. "My father, Des, was born in Belfast and grew up in Donegal. I've got lots of relations out there, uncles and aunts, and it was a great chance to visit them and catch up with them.

"All For Love was only the second film I had ever made and I was lacking in confidence. I was rather insecure and learning all the time," she says.

"These people had been brave enough to have faith in me that I could do the job properly and I was determined to do myself and the film justice. It was quite a steep learning curve, but you can't help but learn when you have people like Richard E Grant and Miranda Richardson with you. It was fantastic watching them perform."

Anna originally wanted to train as a barrister and got into acting by accident when, at 15, she landed the part of Michael Palin's daughter in Alan Bleasdale's GBH. Now such directors as Joel Schumacher want Anna's name on their film credits, though she has no intention of signing any deal just yet. She is committed to Closer until September, when she plans to take a holiday.

"I want to take my time and build a career rather than rush into the first big offer that comes along. I don't want it to be an instant hit and no one hear of me again," she says.

"I aim to plan carefully what I'm doing and I've got a great agent who helps me with that. I'd prefer to do something because it's challenging or because it's got a great director who I admire rather than take something big for the sake of it.

"I'd rather do work that is satisfying and can help me grow as an actress and learn. I'm still learning all the time.

"It's funny, you know, but in England they keep calling me 'poor little Anna', as if I've really suffered, as if I was really unfortunate in some way," she adds. "Well, I don't want anyone to feel sorry for me because I'm happy and doing very nicely, thank you.