By James Mottram

Agyness Deyn is not what I was expecting. The former supermodel ?? the ??It?? girl of 2008, when Aggy fever was all the rage ?? arrives for our interview as low key as you can get. Dressed in a camel coat, skirt, black ankle socks and brogues, there??s not a hint of attitude from the 31 year-old once dubbed ??the face of a generation??. Nor is there any sign of transatlantic wear-and-tear from her time living in LA. ??I??ve so not lost my accent!?? she chuckles, in her soft East Lancs twang.

While plenty of models have made the crossover to film ?? indeed, Deyn??s catwalk queen successor Cara Delevingne appears in Michael Winterbottom??s forthcoming Amanda Knox-inspired film The Face of an Angel ?? Deyn seems different. While her first forays into film were remakes that either relied on her beauty (playing Aphrodite in 2010??s Clash of the Titans) or her inherent hipness (a junkie in Pusher), there??s an

ambition in her that suggests she can go beyond mere decoration.

When we meet, she??s recently finished shooting the lead in Terence Davies?? Sunset Song, a long-gestating adaptation of Lewis Grassic Gibbon??s classic novel of life in rural Scotland in the early 20th Century. Before that, however, comes Electricity, a stirring British indie in which Deyn plays Lily, a girl suffering from epilepsy. Like the Daniel Craig movie Some Voices, which tackled schizophrenia in such a vivid way, it treats Lily??s illness with a rare seriousness.

Based on the novel by Ray Robinson, which itself was inspired by a true story, Deyn was immediately taken when she read the script. ??It was just so captivating in a way that you could really understand it and it was something I never really thought about understanding,?? she says. ??I thought of epilepsy?¦I know it??s a really naïve way to think about it but I just related it to seeing someone convulse on the floor.??

Watching YouTube videos, working with doctors and talking to real-life epileptics, Deyn learnt just what ??a constant pre-occupation?? it is, never knowing if you??re about to collapse on the pavement and injure yourself. Deyn threw herself into the role, leaving herself battered and bruised in the process. ??No matter how many crash mats are there and how many stunt men, you??re still using your body in a physical way.??

It??s certainly a long way from hitting the covers of Vogue and Time magazine, the culmination of a stellar modelling career that came about after she was spotted shopping in Kentish Town with her fashion-designer friend Henry Holland. It wasn??t entirely unexpected, though. Born and raised near Rochdale, the second of three children, back when she was plain old Laura Hollins and working part-time in a fish-and-chip shop, she won the Rossendale??s Free Press??s Face of 99 competition when she was 16.

By 2007, she was Model of the Year at the British Fashion Awards, but having acted in school, she gradually decided she wanted to make the transition. ??I feel like if you want to do something, you have to take a leap,?? she says. ??Like my friend always says, if you??re mountain climbing, and you??re on the face of the rock, you??re looking down but you??ve got to go up ?? but to get that next bit, you have to jump off the rock to grab it. You??ve just got to do that sometimes, [even if] you??re in a career that you??re doing well in.??

Does she keep in touch with what??s happening with the fashion world? ??I don??t really follow it that much,?? she shrugs, claiming that this is simply a natural progression in life. ??You change and you grow. [In your thirties] you??re not doing what you did in your twenties, and when you??re in twenties, you??re not doing what you did in your teens.?? I ask if she misses it and she shakes her head. ??I don??t know how fulfilling it might have been,?? she says, before hastily adding ??not that modelling is not fulfilling??.

Still, it??s probably not as satisfying as crafting a character like Lily in Electricity or Chris in Sunset Song. She spent months on the latter, shooting in New Zealand, Luxembourg and Aberdeenshire, working closely with Davies and co-star Peter Mullan, absorbing everything. ??I just feel like I??m a sponge,?? she grins. Already the film is expected to premiere in Cannes next year, a moment that will shine the spotlight on Deyn??s acting talent even further.

Playing a teenager who inherits a farm after her mother commits suicide and her father dies following a stroke, it certainly promises to be a meaty role. ??She??s strong and she is the land,?? says Deyn. ??Rather than be badly affected by the land, she uses it as a positive thing. Rather than fighting the harshness, she goes with it.?? Deyn too is not quite the urban creature you might imagine. In LA, she hikes and horse rides, and whenever she??s back visiting her mum, a former nurse, they go on country walks.

Typical of her transition to a life beyond the catwalk, two years ago it was announced she ??quietly?? married actor Giovanni Ribisi, a practising Scientologist whose credits range from Friends (playing Phoebe??s brother) to Avatar. He??s a great actor, I tell her. ??Yeah, he is. He??s fantastic.?? Would they ever consider working together? She giggles. ??I don??t know. I suppose we??re both doing our things. That would be really funny. You don??t know until you try it.?? This, it seems, might just be her motto.

Electricity opens on December 12.