Now Magazine - November 2001

I was told 'have our baby soon or forget about it'

"The whole thing was a shock" she says. "It happened very suddenly. My stomach filled with blood and I lost 2 litres of blood and had two transfusions. It was very dramatic and frightening. But I was more concerned about stopping filming.I was told I had endometriosis. It's when the lining of the womb grows over your stomach lining and can block your Fallopian tubes. So I was told to have a family sooner rather than later. I really want children, but ideally I'd have liked a choice on timing. In this case, my mind is being made up for me. I've always wanted children and although I'm not ready at this moment, I'll plan ahead. But I'm not letting it worry me or rule my life. I came back to the film after a couple of weeks, rather than the recommended six weeks' rest and just got on with it. You have to."

Anna also announced that she's never been happier in her private life, having enjoyed an 18-month relationship with 38-year-old actor David Thewlis. They live together between his flat in London and her house in Windsor, Berkshire.

"We met originally at the Cannes Film Festival about three years ago", she says. "A whole crowd of young British actors, including Kate Winslet and Jude Law, were there to promote British film. It wasn't love at first sight. We just got on well, as two Northerners. We were taken around various films and didn't have a chance to talk much. But it was completely different when we met up again. We both attended a dinner with mutual friends and from that night onwards we've not been apart. He was out of a relationship and I was single, so there was no reason not to be together from that moment. We both get plenty of invitations out, but appreciate the joy of nights in, just the two of us."

Anna's been known as a party animal in the past, but says those days are now curtailed. "David's well beyond that", she says. "He just says:'No thank you, if you don't mind'. And that's the end of it. We don't want to become a celeb couple and I don't want to influence him on that score. He's a well-respected actor who's never been into the celeb scene, He's a no nonsense, down-to-earth guy and I'm happy to spend as much time as possible with him."

Anna, whose past boyfriends have included singer and actor Darren Day and a well-publicised fling with Robbie Williams, is clearly enjoying the more mellow company of Naked star David. They also met each other's parents within a week - David's in Blackpool and Anna's in Rochdale. "When mum and dad met him, they said:'What a great guy'", reports Anna. "Dad was staying with me in Windsor and they ended up playing guitar together".

Despite making a string of movies, Anna is still best-known for her Brookside role as Beth and the lesbian kiss which was replayed last month as one of the nation's favourite TV moments. But stage performances in Closer in New York and in Lulu at London's Almeida Theatre have further highlighted her acting talent. Her performance in Me Without You is possibly her best yet on the big screen.

She and Dawson's Creek American star Michelle Williams, delivering a perfect English accent, play close friends growing up in London's suburbia in the 70's and 80's. Their story is followed from the ages of 16 to 29, through school, university, jobs and a variety of relationships. Anna's character is a precocious wild child who becomes sexually provocative and manipulative with age. Michelle is romantic, book-loving and insecure, always under the influence of her best friend.

"It's about how such a friendship can be fulfilling, but can also feel like a trap", says Anna. "The director Sandra Goldbacher had an interesting way of getting Michelle and me into our characters. She said: ' I'm going to leave you for an hour and I want you to play around like a couple of 13-year-olds'. We looked at each other as if to say: 'What the fuck do we do?'. But we improvised and worked out how you sit differently, your voice is higher and you want to be an adult, with breasts. The first thing we talked about was sex. Then she made us talk and act like 18-year-olds and so on. It was a good way to work, because during filming we'd be playing teenagers in the morning and doing a scene as 29-year-olds in the afternoon.

Anna's been working almost non-stop since her Brookside role. She played Hermia in A Midsummer Night's Dream and starred with Rachel Weisz and Catherine McCormack in Land Girls. She was an American in Sunset Strip, and Australian single mother in Mad Cows and south Londoner Lisa Leeson in Rogue Trader. There have been other films yet to come out, such as The War Bride and Everlasting Piece. Now playing a photo-journalist in a television film Fields of Gold, Anna reflects, " I'm still only 25 and have a lot to learn. I'm packing in as much experience as I can".

-Garth Pearce