Suite Dreams

Words: Jenny Tucker. Photos: Jean-Claude Dhien

It's a good job I get to meet Anna Friel twice because the first time doesn't leave me with the best impression. The initial introduction takes place on a sweltering morning at the Portobello Hotel in west London. Walking past reception, I scan the back room that's floodlit with sunshine, searching for the pocket-sized actress and the photographer who'll be taking her picture. Spotting a clump of people lounging on sofas, I head towards them where I find Anna, with newly-chopped hair, sitting scrunched in a ball. She is so tiny she looks like she might slide down the back of the seat. I ask her if anyone from the press office has arrived yet. Confused, she believes I think she's from Sky Magazine and hesitates for a moment before saying, "Er, I'm Anna Friel. I know, I blurt, "I'm the journalist who's going to be interviewing you." Both of us are embarrassed. "I'm sorry," Anna replies, flapping her hands in front of her pale face, I'm not thinking straight, I'm so tired. The previous evening she'd gone along to a screening of her new film, Land Girls, and celebrated afterwards into the early hours. "We were drinking tequila, that was a bad idea," she sighs. "Meg was there, it was her friend's birthday, and then Kate came along. It got a bit mad. Anna chats about her friends as though you know them, and although you do, it's not quite the intimate relationship she enjoys -most of us only know Meg Matthews and Kate Moss from the tabloids.

As Anna talks, her press officer, make-up artist and hairdresser start milling around. Jean-Claude, the photographer, is still working out where he wants to shoot and so I suggest we do the interview first. Anna refuses. "I can't concentrate right now. I'll be OK in 10 minutes, just let me be." She turns to her press officer who's looking concerned. "Don't worry, Anna assures her, "I won't let you down. I need food. Can someone get me a jacket potato?" Suddenly her mobile phone rings. "Hello Ewan! How are you, sweetie?" Oh, that's Ewan McGregor, if you didn't already know.

Upstairs in one of the Portobello's bedrooms, Jean-Claude is ready to snap. He wants Anna to thrash around on the circular bed and look like a minx. She giggles and pouts and rolls her eyes. Then while more film is being loaded into the camera she hugs a tummy that's as flat as plywood and complains she feels terrible. Jean-Claude coaxes her in French to lie back and stare deep into his lens. Anna answers in French and is obviously chuffed when we all express our admiration. "I spent a month in France every year as a child." she reveals. Standing over her, Jean-Claude focuses on her face. "Ooh la la, you're straddling me, honey," she laughs as she writhes around the sheets, her mood fluctuating with each click of the camera.

Between outfit changes, Anna sips water and sighs. "I've got a stomach ache. I had some funny prawns yesterday. Oh dear, what a moaning minny. The interview will be all about how I constantly complained." She flashes me a look to check my reaction. I smile weakly and think to myself, "Yeah, probably."

Twenty minutes later the PR sidles up to me and declares that Anna doesn't want to do the interview today. She's not well and she doesn't think I'll get the best out of her. We reschedule for a few days' time.

As I'm leaving I say goodbye. Anna grips my hand and seduces me with those marmoset eyes, pleading, "You won't hold this against me, will you?"

Our second meeting is at her flat in a less salubrious part of west London. I've been made to promise that I won 't talk about her home in detail so there's no point waffling on about her antique furniture, dried flowers in the kitchen and leather-bound book collection in the hall. Anna's flat seems like it belongs to an older person, someone who has shunned the frivolity of being a carefree 22-year-old.

When I ring the doorbell Anna is dozing. She answers her intercom after a few minutes, sounding groggy and surprised to hear my voice. She buzzes me in and appears at her front door, rubbing her eyes. There is a red imprint on her cheek where she has been sleeping heavily on something. "God, is that the time?" she cries. "I nodded off on the sofa, I didn't realise it was so late. Oh, you must think I'm terrible I'm so sorry. Let me make you a cup of tea." She hurries me into the kitchen and then disappears to repair her face. A few minutes later she's squashed up next to me wearing lipstick, smoking a cigarette and drinking a strong coffee.

"The other day was a disaster," she offers before I've had a chance to bring it up. "I'm not usually as miserable as that. I'd just had enough that day; trying to do too much at once." She fidgets with her cigarette packet, suddenly seeming incredibly vulnerable.

After first appearing on Brookside at 16-and-a-half, she's since gained respect with her role as Bella in the BBC's Our Mutual Friend and will soon be starring in no less than five movies. First off is Land Girls, out in September, a love story based around three women thrown together during the Second World War when they go to work on a remote Dorset farm and end up taking turns in the sack with the farmer's son. Appearing alongside Rachel Weisz, Catherine McCormack and Steven Mackintosh, Anna shines as the gutsy, live-for-today Prue.

"I'm doing great things right now, I'm not complaining," Anna smiles. "But I am exhausted. Although I want people to treat me like a professional, I still want to enjoy my youth before it escapes me." She looks morosely into the middle distance. "I've got a Hollywood agent and I'm hoping things will take off there but I suppose that will make life even more hectic." (She recently did a screen test for a movie starring Brad Pitt and Ed Norton. She met them both and decided Brad was "a bit gorgeous " and Ed was "tucking talented.") After a moment or two of reflection, she almost visibly shakes herself out of her mood. "I can't help worrying about my career. This is an extremely important time for me now. I want these new movies to do well. Hopefully then people will stop going on about Brookside. Do you know, the other day a journalist asked me what I'd do if all my films flopped? I was like, thanks, I hadn't even thought about that. Talk about instant paranoia."

On cue the phone rings and Anna jumps to answer it. She perks up when she realises it's her dad. They chat for a minute before she tells him she loves him and "must get back to work." When she re-enters the room, she's beaming.

"My mum and dad are fantastic. I miss them loads but they ring me all the time and my dad helps out with the website I'm doing". Yep. The Anna Friel Page on the Internet. Fans can read all the latest Anna news, send her messages and look forward to a personal reply.

"I was getting too much fan mail so being on the Net means I can keep in touch with everyone, plus it helps me understand what the public thinks of my work. I want to be accessible. They are the people who are paying money to see my films, so if I spend 15 minutes a day writing replies - and they're only a sentence or two - then I'm giving them something back."

Have you ever had any pervy requests? "Someone asked for a pair of my knickers once but most people who contact me only have nice things to say."

The more I observe Anna, I can't help thinking that she's desperate for people to like her - I'm sure it bothered her when our first meeting didn't go as smoothly as hoped and she'd be mortified if I wrote anything particularly vicious.

She looks sheepish at this. "I'm getting better. I used to give myself such a hard time, worrying that I'd said the wrong thing in an interview or upset a friend because I'd been too busy to pay enough attention to them. The older I get, the more confident I become. By the time I'm 30 I'll be well sorted."

I wonder how she felt when the rumours about her and Ewan McGregor having an affair flitted through the gossip columns. She changes the subject, jumping up

to ask me if I'd like to see a rough cut of Rogue Trader. It's based on the life of Nick Leeson, who's played by Ewan (Anna stars as his wife). She flicks on the video to reveal a bottle-blonde Anna and a Cockney Ewan yanking off their clothes and cavorting on a bed. We both giggle - me at the nudity, her at her accent.

Isn't that sort of scene embarrassing? "Not really. Our very first day of filming was a sex scene. I turned up in my flip flops and dyed hair. I wasn't in awe of Ewan at all. I just got on with the job in hand." Quite. I ask he again about the rumours. "The press can say what they want, I don't pay any attention and Ewan doesn't give a shit so long as it doesn't hurt his wife and kid. We speak loads on the phone, we're friends but that's as far as it goes." Later we discuss the logistics of two people getting their kit off on set. Anna reckons it's not unusual for a bloke to get an erection "Well, you'd wonder what was wrong with you if he didn't" - but whether Ewan is a culprit, she refuses to reveal.

Anna's past romances with Darren Day and Robbie Williams have been dissected and discussed to the point of tedium. I wonder what she makes of the tabloid obsession with Darren and his fiancée Tracy Shaw. "By the time this comes out he'll be married," she sighs. "I hope it works out but I don't know whether it will. He got engaged so quickly. I'm not sure how true that can be." As for Anna herself, there's no one to blab about right now because she's single.

"I've been on a few dates which the press haven't twigged but I'm not worried about a relationship right now. I'm too busy. Recently I worked with Michelle

Pfeiffer and Kevin Kline on A Midsummer Night's Dream and I thought Kevin Kline was gorgeous. He's so intelligent, so articulate and that's attractive to me, but he's got a great wife so nothing's going to happen. She pauses before announcing, "I do miss the sex, though."

I can't resist. It's something I've always wanted to know: is Robbie good in bed?

Anna squawks and nearly chokes on her cigarette. "He's very sexy, that's all I'm saying. But you could melt in those eyes with their long lashes. He's got the most beautiful eyes I've ever seen, I've told him that. After Darren, his sense of fun was so appealing to me. I went from this big serious thing to a mad fling. I haven't seen Rob for ages because I haven't been around, but we're still good mates."

How did you cope with his spell in rehab? "I was in Ireland filming this movie, All For Love, and while I was away he went into the clinic. I knew he was partying but not to that extent. He didn't want to call me because he didn't want me to get involved, but it was a selfish act too. Only he could sort out his problems, he had to do it his own way. Rob taught me that it was OK to do stuff for yourself. I was always worrying about how my actions would affect the next person and so I was constantly devaluing myself. I gave Rob security, he gave me fun. That was great for a while but it couldn't last. But please don't write that I was talking about Rob all through this interview. He's far more private than me and I don't want to upset him."

There she goes again, worrying about rubbing folk up the wrong way. I feel like giving her a sisterly hug. As I make to leave, she shows me to her front door and says she's deliberating whether to go out with Meg or stay at home with her 40-something godparents. "I think I'll have a quiet one," she decides, flashing me a devious smile.