JUNO TEMPLE wonders if I’m surprised to meet her because she suspects the blonde hair and lip ring are what I’m expecting.

It’s not because she has sported a variety of looks on screen.

There was much comment about Hollywood star George Clooney having three pictures in last month’s London Film Festival.

But so did Temple, living up to the description of her as “one of the hottest young stars of film in Britain”.

She took her first leading role in Cracks, Jordan Scott’s directorial feature debut set in a girls’ boarding school, and is back in the classroom in the latest St Trinian’s comedy. Between those, she was seen in Stephen Poliakoff’s return to the big screen, Glorious 39.

We’ll be seeing a lot more of her next year as she has several films awaiting release.

No wonder she says: “It’s exciting, really exciting. I got my first job at 15, started filming at 16 and I’ve just turned 20 this year. I don’t want to stop ever.”

I doubt it will. Anyone who recalls her in Atonement, for which she dyed her hair ginger and played the girl who cried “rape” in the Forties-set story, will know she has real screen presence.

She’s the daughter of director Julien Temple, whose movies include Absolute Beginners and Earth Girls Are Easy. He’s recently announced he’ll direct a movie about the Kinks.

Juno says she’s wanted to act “forever”.

Her parents didn’t hold her back. “I told them when I was 14 I really wanted to pursue acting and they were like, ‘are you sure?’. I went to an open audition for my first part and then I’ve been very, very lucky. I really hope it keeps going because I really want this.

It wasn’t her family’s background that got her interested in acting as the amazing learning curve of experiencing and feeling emotions you might not feel yourself, she explains. “You get a grasp on them and you’re allowed to do them through someone else. What other business can you do that in? Incredible.”

Three years ago, in Notes On A Scandal, she played Cate Blanchett’s troubled daughter. Since then she’s been stuck in the past with a series of period roles, although she points out that she’s recently finished playing three modern parts.

In Cracks, she’s a schoolgirl with an unhealthy devotion to her teacher (played by Eva Green). She and her classmates make up the school diving team, although young Irish divers doubled in the swimming scenes film in a cold lake.

“We had to do a bit of training. It’s such an elegant form of sport, the way you SATURDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2009 northernecho.co.uk TV & ENTERTAINMENT 15 hold yourself and the whole hand movement,”

says Juno.

“There’s something, I don’t know, sexual about diving. It’s very beautiful, especially when a woman does it, and when girls are maturing like that.. tight-fitting suits...the body...” Her voice trails off – which is probably just as well in a family newspaper.

Returning to schoolgirl Celia in the new St Trinian’s film, The Legend Of Fritton’s Gold, was something completely different.

“She’s green this time, she’s an eco warrior who wants to power the school by wind power, which is a pretty cool character to play, a good thing to promote. I believe in that. We should all go green.

Run cars on cow manure? Yes, please.”

It could mark the end of her school career.

“I’ve just made a film where I went to university at last. So that was exciting,”

she says. “But the two projects I might be doing are both me playing a 16- year-old. Not a boarding school this time, but an American high school, so it’s different.”

She wants the acting to continue but says all you can do is hope, audition and live life. She feels she’s making progress.

“I’ve had time to live and grow up – I turned 20, fell in love, worked out my life, and left school,” she adds.

■ Cracks (15) is showing at Newcastle Tyneside Cinema, St Trinian’s 2: The Legend Of Fritton’s Gold (PG) and Glorious 39 (15) are showing in cinemas in the region.