Saffron's looking after No.1

You never quite know where you might run into Saffron Burrows. When I first met her last autumn she was in San Sebastian, Spain, on the film-festival circuit, with a one-word message on her cropped T-shirt: Hackney. 'I went to school there,' she explained. 'I have another one saying Dalston. I've always lived in London.' These days, though, you're just as likely to catch her in Paris or Milan, New York or Los Angeles. When we spoke again this month, she was just back from Amsterdam, where she's been shooting opposite Kate Winslet in Enigma, directed by Michael Apted (of Seven Up fame), about the Second World War code-breaking centre.

All told, Burrows has had a busy year, and an enormously varied one. One minute she was storming through Hollywood no-brainers such as Wing Commander (in a lead role) and Deep Blue Sea, Renny Harlin's blockbuster movie about a killer shark. The next she was playing twins in Mike Figgis's semi-experimental The Loss Of Sexual Innocence. In September she'll be seen in the demanding title role in a new screen version by Figgis of Strindberg's play Miss Julie. But next up she stars as a criminal's moll in Sixties mob movie Gangster No.1.

Burrows, 27, is chatty, with a direct, friendly manner and a great film face, strong-boned and intense, a little like a young Geena Davis. 'There's not much of a feminine element, is there?' she smirks, talking about Gangster No.1, the story of the deadly rivalry between a charismatic gangland boss (David Thewlis) and his envious young apprentice (Paul Bettany). 'The first time I read the script I remember thinking, "Here we go again, another story where the woman survives for five pages and then is bumped off in some sick, sexually perverse way." Then you discover that David Thewlis and I actually love each other. I liked that idea.

'And I thought the young gangster's obsession with him was really interesting. It's not just about wanting his power or wanting to sleep with him, it's about wanting to possess and be inside him. It's an aspect of male relationships that's not often explored. I have a real aversion to violence on screen and some of the scenes in the film are intentionally horrific. But there's a turning point that shows Bettany's character cracking up and the logical conclusion of a life led in that way.'

One aspect of the film was more fun: its Sixties setting. Burrows gets to sing in it, as well as to model a range of vintage dollybird gear. 'I loved that Biba style - it makes you feel like a different person. It's a fascinating era for someone of my generation because we just missed it. How can you be nostalgic for something you've not lived through? Yet I think we are. It's intriguing to find out about the things that mattered to your parents. My dad was actually in Blow-Up [the quintessential Swinging London film] very briefly, in a big party scene.'

Burrows was spotted on the street at the age of 16 by the same agent who discovered Naomi Campbell, and over the next eight years modelled for Chanel, Calvin Klein, Romeo Gigli and Vivienne Westwood. She made her acting debut in a small role in Jim Sheridan's 1993 film about the Guildford Four, In The Name Of The Father, in which she got to smooch Daniel Day Lewis (on and off screen). She played Minnie Driver's pal in Circle Of Friends and one of Dennis Potter's fantasy females in the late playwright's swansongs, Karaoke and Cold Lazarus, and cheerfully admits to being fired from Celebrity by Woody Allen (apparently for not being vulgar enough, a reason she later decided was rather flattering).

Her attitude to Hollywood is thoroughly pragmatic. 'The first time I flew there with my agent, the pilot announced, "Ladies and gentlemen, I don't want to alarm you but there's been an earthquake. The airport is closed and we'll sit on the runway for a couple of hours." So my introduction to the studio system was walking into buildings full of rubble.

'Deep Blue Sea was a very interesting experience. I watched it for the first time one morning on my own in a big 200-seat cinema in New York and I was mortified. Then I saw it again that same night with an audience and I understood why it worked. The response was quite extraordinary. There I was thinking I was playing this altruistic scientist - single-minded, OK, but not evil. But they genuinely hated my character. They were shouting "Die!" at the screen.

'The producers rang me up three days before it opened and said, "We put a woman in a swimming pool in LA today and shot you dying." You feel a little powerless. But at least it stops you worrying about the sequel. You know you're ultimately getting involved in a commercial exercise and you can't be naive about that. You do experience things that are eye-opening and often pretty vulgar. There's a machismo among studio executives which I find objectionable. But there's also a community of really interesting writers and directors. And Los Angeles is not just a town that's served up to you on a plate. There are other layers to it, but you have to seek them out - an extraordinary area that was a centre for the trade union movement during the McCarthy era, and some astounding architecture.' Unlike Driver, she has never considered moving there permanently. 'I enjoy visiting. But I love London too much and I'm very close to my family.'

Burrows has another reason to stay here. In 1994, while modelling for Westwood, she met Figgis, who was shooting a documentary on the designer, and became involved with him. His career was about to peak with Leaving Las Vegas, which earned him two Academy Award nominations, as well as an Oscar for its star, Nicolas Cage. But despite this success Figgis, frustrated with Hollywood, has since focused his energies on low-budget 16mm film-making, based in Britain. Burrows has appeared in his last four movies.