The Beth days of My Life

Why hot Brookie star Anna is cool about Hollywood

She's a favourite cover girl of the men's glossies. Top of the guest list at movie premieres. And Hollywood has just made her an offer she had to refuse…

Anna Friel is discovering that there IS life after Brookside - as long as it's not another soap and doesn't come between her and her boyfriend, Darren Day. Hollywood directors were desperate for her to star in a new drama series and offered her a lucrative five-year contract - but she turned it down flat.

"It was tempting but I feel I've done my time in a long-running soap" says 20-year-old Anna, who is just back from a fortnight in the States. "Beth Jordache was a pretty harrowing part to play… killing my dad, burying him under the patio, having a lesbian love affair and then dying in prison is enough for a while, I think". But there was more to her decision to give Hollywood a miss for the moment. It would have meant more long periods away from Darren, host of TV's You Bet!

The couple share Darren's luxurious Thames-side home in Chiswick, West London - but they only see each other once a week as it is. Darren is currently working in Blackpool, where he is starring in the stage version of the Sixties cult film classic, Summer Holiday.

"Darren is very supportive of me and everything I do - but it's tough" says Anna. "Relationships are difficult enough in normal circumstances, but having a relationship when you only see each other on Sunday is especially difficult."

Add to that the pressure of being continually in the public eye, their own insecurities and paranoia, and it makes for a virtually impossible relationship, she says. "But we've weighed everything carefully and both believe it's worth working at. And we DO work hard at it. We've been together for two years now and that's certainly not to be sniffed at. Even though we spend an awful lot of time apart, I know Darren's only a phone call away".

But Anna rules out any question of marriage. At least in the next ten years."We're very happy as we are," she smiles. "It's everyone else who seems concerned about when we're getting married. The answer, once and for all is: We don't know ! I certainly don’t want to get married until I'm at least 30. I've still got to get everything out of my system. But when I give myself to someone, I'll do it completely."

Anna's recent two-week visit to America has also put her off moving across the Atlantic at the moment. "Going to the beach was quite an experience", she says. "There were glistening bronzed bodies everywhere. I really stuck out because I was so lily-white and pasty…. and because I was the only one without a boob job. I've never seen so many in my life. It seems everyone's had one. You even see young schoolgirls showing off the big fake boobs and the nose jobs they got for their birthdays. There's no way on earth I'd ever consider one."

And though she recently signed up with a top Hollywood agent, Anna was less than impressed by Hollywood. "LA is a very unusual place - full of such phoney people", she says. "For the first week, I thought 'God I don’t like this. I can't wait to leave.' But I gradually got used to it and, in the end, I found it all rather amusing. Everyone looks exactly the same - they all work out and take themselves so seriously. But if you don’t get sucked up in to the LA way, you can have some really good fun."

Her visit, however, was cut short to start work on a new film on this side of the Atlantic - an off-beat thriller called Stringer. "It's very European and far from mainstream - but it's exactly the sort of film I like", she says. "I really want to choose my work carefully now and not just sell out to the highest bidder. Job satisfaction is far more important to me than being rich and famous. And I'll enjoy the money all the more if I really earn it"

Anna says she's been offered all kinds of work that would have made her a lot of money, but turned down jobs because they "weren't right". The fashion world for instance is fighting to get its hands on her svelte, size 8 figure - but Anna still finds plenty of faults with her shape. "I'm only 5ft 5in and I 'd love to be taller - I've always wanted a more womanly figure", she says. "I have trouble finding trousers to fit because I have no hips to speak of - and I'd love to be able to fill curvy clothes. If I put weight on, it only goes on my stomach. I look like a pregnant stick insect !"

But nine out of 10 men's magazines wouldn't agree. Anna is frequently featured on their covers and touted as the sexiest thing since the Wonderbra. "It's very flattering - and I do get very embarrassed by it all. But I'd definitely rather be thought of as sexy than not", she says. "I think sexiness is something from within. You don't have to wear blatantly obvious, sex-siren clothes to look sexy".

Which explains the subtle sophistication of the range of clothes she designed for Littlewoods autumn/winter catalogue. "My great passion, aside from acting, is clothes", she says. "I like to create my own style and be a bit different. I especially love simple and stylish clothes - the kind of under-stated elegance created by icons like Audrey Hepburn. My favourite designers are Ghost and Dolce & Gabbana - and they have heavily influenced me - but I wanted to create a much more affordable, high-fashion look."

But you don't have to have a model figure to look good in the clothes, insists Anna. "I hate the idea that you have to be 5ft 10 and a size 10 in order to look good. With the right clothes, anyone can look good"

But it does help if you look like Anna Friel.