SOME things haven't changed. The accent is still pure Lancashire, the physique Vogue cover star slender. But it's not the model Agyness Deyn who is sitting in front of me today. It's the actor.

That's what she is now. It's summer and Deyn has just walked off a plane and into a hotel in Edinburgh to talk about her new film The White King. The last time she was in this room, she remembers, it was to promote her last film Sunset Song. "I walked in and thought 'oh yeah, this place," she says as she sits down.

After years of appearing in fashion magazines and perfume ads, Deyn is now more at home on a film set. And usually an indie film set, such as The White King's. Is that by accident or design, you have to wonder?

"It's both at the same time," Deyn suggests. "Something has to come along. You kind of project what you want. I'm not like a Russian wife of a billionaire. I definitely gravitate towards a certain thing. Things I get excited about are all very different. It seems something that just hooks into my own reality and who I am and where I am and where I want to go and where I want to be pushed to."

The White King sees her pushed into the realm of politics. Despite being based on a Hungarian novel by Gyorgy Dragoman and, indeed, being filmed in Hungary, It offers an arthouse take on a fascist America.

When we speak the idea of a Trump presidency is still a bad dream rather than a clear and present reality. Now, from this vantage point The White King suddenly seems like a dystopian vision of a post-Trump future.

"It's like a sci-fi period drama," Deyn argues, which sums it up well. A retrofuture USA as designed by the German American bund or the KKK.

Deyn plays Hannah, the mother of newcomer Lorenzo Allchurch. In the course of the film her radicalised husband is taken away from her and she is rejected by her regime-supporting in-laws, played by Jonathan Pryce and Fiona Shaw. Deyn describes her character as someone "who goes from being unconscious and suppressed to fighting to be conscious of reality."

The result, to be honest, is an at times uneasy mix of YA thrills and political drama. But Deyn loved the process of making it and as we talk she's hyped that the writer Ian Rankin has just tweeted that he's been to see it.

She reckons the film is for "people who are kind of like 'I want to watch something a little strange and surreal and not commercial … Although I love a good commercial film."

Is Deyn a political animal herself? "I wouldn't say I'm political. More of a humanist. I tend to stay away from politics and religion as a major viewpoint."

Well, does she watch the news every night? "Oh, no, no, no. I try and not watch it. Unless you're watching really, really local news it is generally reporting not so great news. Because that's the news. It's not like 'people are doing so great in Birmingham right now.' Obviously I know what's going on. I don't need it to be drilled into me constantly."

Deyn, born Laura Hollins, grew up on the margins of Oldham and Rochdale in the 1980s. She worked in a chippie aged 13, was childhood friends with the designer Henry Holland and became one of fashion's faces of the new century, before taking a left turn into acting.

After parts in small films Pusher and Electricity (and a small part in the big film Clash of the Titans), Sunset Song saw her take on the daunting role of Chris Guthrie in Terence Davies's lauded adaptation of Lewis Grassic Gibbon's novel. She still can't quite believe that happened.

"It was a massive experience and it was a life-changing moment in my life, being given the gift of playing that woman. It was a dream to play someone with so much going on, who is so complex, multifaceted and layered."

She has nothing but praise for the director. "Working with Terence, with someone that loves women, has this amazing projection and viewpoint of what a woman is, that's a gift. Coming to this industry and having someone say 'be like this, this is what an actress is, this is what a woman should be represented as, go and do that,' is really inspiring."

It could spoil you, Agyness. "No, I think it's a blessing to have. It was an absolute joy to have this experience and you can bring that to anything. You can bring that Terence touch to it."

Do casting agents still see the word model in front of her name, I ask? "I'm not really sure. You'd have to ask them."

Well, is there a big difference between modelling and acting? Deyn thinks there is. When you're acting, she says, "You're being real." And that means? "To be imperfect, to have those nuances of character, to have moments of vulnerability."

That, she adds, is the opposite of her former job. Modelling is about the unreal. "You're creating something that's perfect."

Is that wrong? "It's not wrong. You're selling a product and people want the product to be pretty. It's advertising. It's so creative on so many levels and I worked with so many wonderful people. But there's something that makes your heart sing when you can just take a breath and be a real person."

In short, for Deyn being an actor is not an act.

The White King goes on limited release on January 27. It will be available on DVD on January 30.