SHE does not make a

pretty sight. A beautiful face bearing the ugly scars of physical misfortune. For Trudie Styler it is all an act, of course. The startling work of the make-up artist. After a day in front of the cameras, it washes off.

But behind these horrendous make-believe injuries lie scars of shocking reality. When Styler was two years old she was involved in a serious road accident: struck by a runaway bread van, she was dragged along the ground by the exhaust pipe. It left her with dreadful facial injuries and it would be 16 years before she was able to have plastic surgery on the NHS to repair the damage.

Throughout her childhood, she was the subject of playground taunts. ''They called me scarface at school - which was horrible. I had a hard time, but I decided to be extrovert and a joker to hide my embarrassment and pain,'' she says. ''I couldn't bear to look at myself in the mirror, but now I have learned to love my scars. They remind me that I must have been quite a little warrior to have survived that accident.''

The actress, aka the wife of pop star Sting, is silent for a moment. Then she laughs. ''Yes, I know all about scars. When I started my relationship with Sting, several papers said, 'Sting is going to marry Scarface'. It doesn't bother me. I accept my looks now that I am mature.''

But her experience helped her to rise to the challenge of her

latest role. The striking picture on the right was taken on the

set of an American-made television movie, Confessions of An Ugly Stepsister, which is a

variation on the Cinderella tale and stars Jonathan Pryce and Stockard Channing.

Styler plays a wise and kind gipsy woman who bears gruesome facial scars. ''Now I can say for the first time that my scars are my asset,'' she says.

Speaking on the set of the new movie, which is currently being filmed in Luxembourg, she recalls: ''When I had the plastic surgery I had this illusion that my face would be perfect after the operation - but it wasn't and it took a very long time before I was happy to look at myself.''

Styler, 43, is at an age when actresses often find it difficult to capture roles, particularly glamorous ones. In recent years she has devoted her time to her husband, her family, and the many causes celebres which are important to all of them.

So far as showbiz is concerned, she has concentrated on working behind the cameras, producing her friend Guy Ritchie's two hit movies, Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch.

''Producing a film is like having a baby,'' she explains. ''You have to tend to it all the time, even when everyone else goes on to another project. Your baby still needs you to hold its hand through all the trials and tribulations to box office success.''

However, she adds: ''My first love was always acting and I left it too soon. I wanted to be an actress even as a little girl. I ran away from home to become an actress. Now I'm going back to square one and starting again. I want to use my experience of life to be a good actor. I think I can improve in parts that are for women of my age, perhaps bring a wider dimension now that was missing when I was younger.''

It is almost 20 years since the stylish Ms Styler first met her pop-star lover Sting. Few at the time would have put money on the relationship standing the test of time. However, four children and a wedding later, they appear to be in it for the long run.

They are said to be genuine soul-mates, a couple who are enormously supportive of each other. They have four homes, a #2m townhouse in London, a country estate in Wiltshire, an apartment in New York, and a beach property in Malibu.

It is a world away from her working-class childhood (she was brought up in a cramped council house in Worcestershire by her dinner-lady mum and school caretaker father). As the wife of a rich and famous rock star, Styler could easily put her feet up and never work again. She could spend her days looking after her family and raising funds for the many charities in which she is involved. In between, she could lie on a sofa eating chocolates and drinking champagne. But the work ethic is clearly important to her. And she appears to be acutely aware that her opulent lifestyle and the right-on, eco-friendly, help-the-poor-and-save-the-rainforests politics she shares with her husband could be regarded as somewhat incompatible.

Ironically, it was her involvement with Sting in the early eighties which effectively brought her career to a sudden halt. She had run away to Stratford-upon-Avon as a teenager and eventually won a scholarship to the Bristol Old Vic. But any hope she might have had of having a future as a serious actress came to an end when she met the man from The Police who, at the time, was still married to Frances Tomelty.

The telephone never rang, the work dried up. There was just too much negative publicity surrounding the young Styler. With the UK stage, television, and film companies ignoring her, she went off to make a few minor movies in Italy.

Eventually, a desire to be more in control and a need to prick consciences led her to set up her own production company, Xingu Films (named after a tributary of the Amazon). She made two remarkable TV

documentaries, The Boys From Brazil about transvestite prostitutes in Rio, and Moving The Mountain about the Tiananmen Square demonstration.