Flora flowers as Trudy

At the audition for the new Irish romantic comedy, When Brendan Met Trudy, Flora Montgomery got so carried away with her performance that she accidentally kicked the leg off the producer Lynda Myles's sofa. 'I thought I'd never work again,' confesses the 25-year-old blonde.

Yet despite this minor mishap, she still landed the lead role of Trudy. 'It was the perfect part for me,' she enthuses. 'I'd done a lot of English TV at that stage, playing a lot of nice English girls, but because I'm from Ireland, I wanted to go back and do something Irish and show people I can do the accent. Plus the script was by Roddy Doyle, and I've been a fan of Roddy's work all my life.'

Certainly there's no doubting the actress's affection for her character Trudy. 'I'd love to be her,' she declares. 'She's so energetic, she lives by her own rules, she's just got the best perspective on life. Nothing gets her down. Her whole attitude is wink, smile and get on with it. She's got the confidence to say what she wants, and do what she wants. She's fantastic!'

Montgomery grew up near Belfast, where 'as the youngest in a big family you learn to shout in order to get heard'. School plays led on to drama school in Dublin, which was followed by a succession of stage and TV roles. A personal highlight was winning Best Actress at the Irish Theatre Awards in 1999 for Miss Julie, ahead of such established names as Sinead Cusack and Frances McDormand, while after a run of small-screen costume dramas, she particularly relished playing the 'conniving bitch' Sophie in the series Metropolis.

The actress has already wrapped her second feature, The Discovery Of Heaven, which she pitches as 'Raiders Of The Lost Ark meets Jules et Jim', and which involved location shooting in Seville, Amsterdam, Rome and Miami alongside co-stars Stephen Fry and Greg Wise. She denies any conscious strategy to her blossoming career though. 'I'm a firm believer that when you've earnt your acting stripes, the work will come to you. I'm not after limos and Hollywood. I'd love somebody to cast me though, because I'm capable of a really good role.'