Listen up.

 

Joanna Vanderham is telling me a story from childhood. It will contain an aside about climate change, a possible sartorial allusion to her father's Dutch roots, the use of a word that only someone barely into her twenties could get away with and a possible insight into the actress's character.

Ready? Here she goes. "I was about 10 and was having my birthday party. It was really, really sunny and this was when it used to be sunny in October. I'm not that old, so this global warming thing has happened really fast.

"I was wearing this orange polo neck, long-sleeve jumper, orange skirt, orange stripy tights and white shoes and I remember thinking I looked the shizz.

"All my friends from school were round and someone else sat at the head of the table and I got really upset and ran out crying. And my dad said, 'What on earth is wrong with you? These people are here to celebrate your birthday.' And I said, 'Rachel sat at the top of the table'. I remember crying for 10 minutes until he threatened to cancel the party."

So basically, I suggest to her, you are telling me a story that reveals your need to be the centre of attention? "Is that the moral of that story? I think it might be."

Vanderham is likely to have plenty of chances to find out in the years ahead. She may soon be Scone's most famous daughter (if she's not already). After appearances in Sky's Martina Cole drama The Runaway, the BBC TV series The Paradise, and Stephen Poliakoff's epic costume drama Dancing On The Edge, Vanderham has arrived at the point where she is being snapped by celebrity photographer Rankin and making films with Julianne Moore, Steve Coogan and Alexander Skarsgard.

That film - What Maisie Knew, a contemporary take on the Henry James novel - is why she is here in Edinburgh talking about temper tantrums and her childhood. She has a train to catch any minute now so we don't have much time. But it doesn't matter. She speaks quickly and confidently. She is someone very much at ease in her own skin.

She says otherwise, of course. Ask her why she wanted to act, and she will tell you: "I think it is when I feel least self-conscious. I feel self-conscious now being me having to answer questions. I think I have always been fascinated by other people and as an actor you get to bring them to life. I will read a script and think, 'If he said that to me I would be upset. I can't believe she's turned on.' So getting into someone's psyche in that way is fascinating to me. Because some people don't react the way you react. And I get to bring that to life and that is just so much fun."

She discovered how much fun when she was 16 - which is only a handful of years ago, let's be honest - when she got to play "a "horrible woman" in a school play. "She marries this boy and steals all his money and wants him to buy her stuff so she can go off and have sex with other men. I was 16 and this was brilliant." (As you read this, insert as many exclamation marks as you like at this point. I would say at least six are required). "My real life was exams and a bit of TV and getting to play this woman was just fun."

In What Maisie Knew Vanderham plays Martha, the film's still, decent centre. She plays a nanny to a child whose parents are self-obsessed, narcissistic monsters. If I had been Martha, I tell her, I would have been straight on to social services.

"Martha doesn't see a lot of the things that happen. If she knew it was that bad you wouldn't have a story" she points out (which is true enough I suppose but even so, I do expect Julianne Moore and Steve Coogan to get a summons for imaginary neglect any day now).

The film's central relationship is between Martha and Maisie, played by a seven-year-old Onata Aprile. Had Vanderham any experience of playing opposite someone so young?

"None whatsoever. It's a running joke with my friends. They have all had to say to me, 'Please like my children' 'Hmm, not making any promises. I like you but ...' I'm kind of renowned for not being a big kid fan, so when I told them the storyline they were saying, 'You're joking. You're going to kill that little girl.'"

You will be pleased to know that didn't happen. The first week of filming saw Vanderham spend a week in a beach house with Onata "so there was a reality to the scene. We would learn our lines together and make dinner together. She is an only child so for her it was like having an older sister for a week. And she was just awesome and proved to me that kids can be kind of cool. I'm not saying all kids ..."

Joanna Vanderham has a tick list - a real, physical tick list - of people she wants to work with. It includes Anne-Marie Duff, Olivia Coleman, Benedict Cumberbatch, Vicky McClure and many more. Any directors? "Can I say Ken Loach without being obvious? I would love to do a film with him."

There is a train to be caught. Time to go.

As she rushes off it is time to ask, what have we learned? Kids aren't necessarily cool, playing bad is good and that Ken Loach is the biz. Joanna Vanderham has left the building. You'll see her again. Often, I'm guessing. Give her your attention.

What Maisie Knew is released on Friday, August 23