Rising star - Kate Ashfield

She's not only our rising star, she's the recipient of this year's British Shooting Star accolade at the Berlin Film Festival.

Recently feted for her performance in Jamie Thraves' s The Low Down, 28-year-old Kate Ashfield is set to repeat her success in another twentysomething drama, Saul Metzstein's excellent Late Night Shopping.

But this time she plays a disillusioned factory worker, Jody, who spends her evenings slurping coffee with three equally lost acquaintances.

'It's easy to stay in those kind of jobs,' she reflects, 'because you've got some money coming in for the first time, and to do something else is a big deal. I can imagine they've all gone up to university and just stayed there, living in student accommodation. It happened to a lot of my friends. I keep badgering a few of them that they really should do some other things - but they're still there!'

While the Birmingham-raised Ashfield has done her fair share of McJobs ? from working for Britvic soft drinks to waitressing ? graduating in drama at Kent's Rose Bruford college kept her on track. 'I always wanted to be a doctor and go to art school, but I thought I'd regret it if I didn't act,' she says. 'Some people say to be an actor you've got to die to do it. I think it's healthy if you think "I'll do it if it works, and if I don't I can do something else." That way seems to work for me.'

Given this casual approach, Ashfield has done remarkably well. After scoring a role in the Kevin Kline-starrer Princess Caraboo in 1994, she went on to do a stint on Soldier, Soldier, before playing in such diverse movies as The War Zone and Guest House Paradiso. Stage work has included Patrick Marber's Closer, while her TV profile has been largely boosted by featuring opposite Alan Davies in the comedy series A Many Splintered Thing.

'It all comes together without you realising it,' she says, simply, of her career. 'There's other films I've made before The Low Down that still haven't come out, so you're really not in control of it yourself.' Movies in the can include The Last Minute, with Max Beesley, and the intriguingly-titled accountancy thriller, Christie Malry's Own Double-Entry ('I play a butcher who loves meat and sex ? she always has a joint') with Nick Moran. So, are people spying on you in supermarkets yet? 'No. Which is a real relief,' she says. 'I find celebrity really scary.' By next year, she may be terrified.