* YOU BEEN SNAP * The only way is LA: Meet British actress Lucy Punch who is tickling Tinseltown pinkBy Martyn Palmer"

*MKILETEWA HAPA NA FLORA LYIMO DESIGNER*

Her brilliant comic timing got her noticed on UK television, and now Brit actress Lucy Punch is getting big-screen laughs in LA – alongside Cameron Diaz and Justin Timberlake. Martyn Palmer is captivated and entertained by
Hollywood’s hottest funny girl

Hunk is served ... Lucy had ordered a Harvey Wallbanger, but what the hell!

Lucy Punch could easily pass as a Los Angeles local, sitting on the sunlit terrace of the Chateau Marmont (that most Hollywood of hotels), her shiny blonde hair framing a heart-shaped, milk-skinned face, grape-green eyes and small, perfect teeth. It’s only when she speaks that she gives the game away with her cut-glass accent – as English as Wimbledon strawberries and cream – and a very British line in self-deprecating humour about the career that might have been if only she’d listened to her mother…
‘I had a lean spell a while back when I was out of work for a year,’ she says. ‘It was very demoralising.
I was thinking of leaving LA and going home. For years my mother has been saying, “Well, if the acting doesn’t work out, you could always train as a chiropodist. It’s a steady job and people always have problems with their feet.” My mother believes in me, but she knows that it doesn’t always matter how talented you are or how hard you work. Sometimes it all comes down to a lucky break.’
Her own lucky break came in 2009 when Woody Allen cast her in You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger
(after Nicole Kidman dropped out). She delivered a scene-stealing performance as gold-digging escort Charmaine, with huge platinum hair, fake nails and a cleavage boosted by falsies, who marries an older man (Anthony Hopkins) for his money. Hollywood duly took note, and work started pouring in.
‘That role changed everything for me,’ says Lucy, 33, who stars in Bad Teacher, a risqué comedy in which she and Cameron Diaz fight, quite literally, for the attentions of Justin Timberlake. ‘We’re competing for Justin, and in any other universe that would be absurd,’ she giggles. ‘I certainly wouldn’t want to be competing with Cameron Diaz in the vamping department.’

Rivals: Lucy with Cameron Diaz in Bad Teacher(left); with Martin Clunes in Doc Martin"Actually, it’s not absurd at all, because in reality Lucy is stunning, today in skinny J Brand jeans, Chloé shoes and a grey paisley Lorenzini blouse. But in Bad Teacher the wardrobe department has gone into overdrive to make her look dowdy.
Cameron plays the foul-mouthed, pot-smoking Elizabeth Halsey, who regards her pupils as an irritation and wants to do anything but teach. In fact, what she mostly wants is to marry someone rich, for which she targets Scott (Justin), a handsome new teacher from a wealthy family. But he is rather smitten with goody two-shoes tutor Amy Squirrel (played by our Lucy, with a pitch-perfect American accent), and battle ensues.
Bad Teacher features plenty of raunchy gags – Cameron’s character is a man-eater, unashamedly prepared to use her sexy looks to snare Scott (their on-screen chemistry has an extra frisson because Cameron and Justin are old flames in real life). Lucy herself says that the humour is ‘out there’ – it’s in the same vein as recent US movies such as The Hangover and Knocked Up, only this time the lead characters are women. ‘I think it’s very funny,’ she says. ‘And actually, I would not want to try to look good next to Cameron – that would be tragic. I look terrible [in the film] but I was supposed to.’
Ms Diaz was, apparently, a sweetheart to work with, lavishing treats on the cast and crew and generally behaving like one of the gang. ‘She’s really lovely, and terribly giving. She knows everyone’s name and does these really sweet things. One night she ordered burgers for everybody. She would bring a masseuse on set, and one time an acupuncturist. It was really cool – I’d never had acupuncture before. There wasn’t anything wrong with me. I just wanted to see what it’s like when someone sticks pins in you…’

There were also a couple of rather surreal, very Hollywood moments, when she sat listening to Cameron and Justin – both multimillionaires – discuss real estate and parties. ‘And I was sitting there going, “Well, I’ve been to the supermarket this morning, and then I went to Starbucks and had an oat bran muffin…” It was weird. If you are at that level of fame and wealth they are totally different conversations. Years ago I did The Graduate on stage in London with Jerry Hall, and I remember she asked me, “What did you do at the weekend?” I think I’d been to Safeway and done my laundry and she’d been to Morocco for the day…’

Prada, Gucci, Fiorucci ... but she couldn't find a Safeway on Rodeo Drive"

While Lucy’s career has certainly taken off since her Woody Allen moment, she isn’t on that kind of pay scale quite yet. ‘Every movie I’ve done, when they cast me they knew I’d probably do it for a toffee apple and a Frappuccino,’ she laughs. ‘Everyone assumes you must be making a fortune, but I’m still driving around in my bashed-up Honda Civic.’
She still lives in the same one-bedroomed apartment in West Hollywood that she rented when she moved to California nearly six years ago. It’s a long way from Southwest London, where she grew up with her parents Johanna and Michael, who ran their own market research company, and younger brother Tom, who works for a New York advertising agency.

She attended the independent girls’ school Godolphin and Latymer, appearing in plays there (Miss Havisham, an Ugly Sister) and getting bitten by the acting bug. ‘I always knew I wanted to do it. My parents were terribly supportive and I acted with the National Youth Theatre.’
At 18, she went to University College London to study French and history of art. ‘I wanted the university experience but I still knew that I wanted to act.’ She remembers it with fondness. ‘I was living in halls of residence opposite Selfridges and they do samples in the food hall. I can remember loads of us going round saying, “Can I have a sample of the truffle cheese, please?” And then moving on to the next freebie. I left university after a year and a half. I wish I’d finished the course, but I got offered a part and acting was something I wanted so much.’

Pilates by the pool, anyone? Even the pelvic floor needs to be on the ball in LA"

The role was Eveline in the short-lived French and Saunders series Let Them Eat Cake. It wasn’t
a success, but Lucy landed more parts, in TV series such as Big Bad World, Midsomer Murders and Doc Martin, playing incompetent Cornish receptionist Elaine Denham to Martin Clunes’s grumpy GP. ‘I had these long pinky white dreadlocks woven into my hair for Elaine,’ says Lucy. ‘They were awful – painful and smelly. I never got a job while I was wearing them. I remember going for a role in the film of Pride and Prejudice and met [director] Joe Wright with my fluorescent dreadlocks. I was trying to look like a pretty Jane Austen character and all he could see was some crazy hippie.’

There were film roles nevertheless (The Life and Death of Peter Sellers, Ella Enchanted, a small but memorable turn in Hot Fuzz) and in 2006, after only one series of Doc Martin, she landed the role of successful TV news reporter Holly Ellenbogen in the US comedy series The Class – about the lives of eight 20-somethings who were all at high school together – and that brought her to Hollywood.
‘I couldn’t even drive when I first got here, and you really need a car in LA,’ she says. ‘But thankfully it’s easy to pass your test here. You don’t even have to park because everyone uses valet parking. Honestly, I should not have passed my test. I just learned my journey to and from work and that was it.’

‘I couldn’t drive when I got here, and you really need a car in LA. But it’s easy to pass your test. You don’t even have to park because everyone uses valet parking’

Then three years ago she hit that rocky patch. The roles dried up and her confidence took a serious knock. ‘What’s horrifying is how you spin out your day when you’re not working – you post a letter, have coffee, have an interesting conversation with your dad, go to auditions, don’t get the part, go to another one…and then a year has gone by. Suddenly I was more or less broke.’
She scraped together enough money for an economy fare back to London, where Woody Allen was holding auditions for You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger – only to be told, the night before she set off, that the part had gone to Ms Kidman.
‘I had a call in the middle of the night saying, “Cancel your ticket because he’s offered it to a movie star.” But I came back. I was a bit weepy and my mum said, “You were up against a movie star – did you really think you would get it?” And of course, you do live with this crazy fantasy.’
A few weeks later Kidman pulled out because of a scheduling clash, and Lucy was back in the frame. ‘I felt, “What am I going to do if I can’t do this?” My brother said I should go travelling, and my mum was saying I should become a chiropodist… And then it was magical, because I got the part.

'How you look as a woman does matter in this business, but I'm not into dieting,' says Lucy"

‘I had a wonderful time. I remember thinking, “Whatever happens, if I stop tomorrow, I can say that I worked on a Woody Allen movie.” It’s so cool and I’m very grateful.’
Since then she’s made six films, including last year’s Dinner for Schmucks, A Little Bit of Heaven with Kate Hudson, and one with the eye-catching title of A Good Old-Fashioned Orgy. ‘Oh, that one,’ she giggles. ‘I’d like to point out that I’m the only character that doesn’t take part in the orgy. A couple of people have said to me, “What’s it called again?” I’m like, “Um, it’s A Good Old-Fashioned Energy…”’

In a profession where body image can become an obsession, she insists her trim figure is all natural rather than the result of extreme dieting and hours of exercise. ‘If the role demands it, I’ll go to the gym. And here everyone goes to the gym. But I eat well and I’m not into dieting. Unfortunately, how you look as a woman does matter in this business, but I don’t do bikini shoots or play those type of roles.’
The key to living in LA is good friends, she says. ‘I do have good friends here. But I miss London, particularly Soho – it’s unlike anywhere else in the world. I get back home as often as I can.’
She said recently that she is ‘single-ish’, but politely refuses to elaborate about boyfriends. ‘If you don’t mind, I’m rather private about that. I know you have to ask.’ She’d love a family one day, she says. ‘A lot of my girlfriends, especially in London, are having children. But here it feels different – everyone is career-orientated and it’s not something that I feel ready for right now. I’d love to have children at some point. This job can breed self-absorption – I’ve been sitting here all morning answering questions about myself! Having a family would help give me some perspective on life outside this crazy city.’
Although she feels right at home in the ‘crazy city’, she admits that there are times when she can’t
quite get to grips with its sprawling geography. ‘I got terribly lost the other day,’ she says. ‘I had to go
to Silver Lake and ended up somewhere called Eagle Rock. I was in the car shrieking to my friend, “Where am I?” And she was saying, “How long have you lived here? You’re hopeless!”’
Her sense of direction may be a little lacking, but her commitment to making it in the tough-as-nails movie hub of LA is second to none. In terms of her career, Ms Punch is clearly going places.
Bad Teacher is in cinemas now