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She’s already ravished Johnny Depp, and now Sophia Myles has landed the most fab film role of all – Thunderbirds‘ Lady Penelope

Having snapped up the part all girls dream of playing as sexy upper-class bombshell Lady Penelope in next years’s big-screen version of The Thunderbirds, Sophia Myles is well on her way to becoming the UK’s sexiest new talent.

You may know her better for her prim and proper corsetted-up roles in TV period dramas such as Mansfield Park, Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby. But she’s not afraid to give raunchy a go, as witnessed in her steamy scenes with Johnny Depp in From Hell.

So was she star-struck working with Johnny? ‘It didn’t really hit me until I saw him getting out of a car on the film set. I was almost sick,’ laughs Sophia. ‘Then I had to spend about three hours in bed with him and we’d only just met — but he was sensitive, compassionate and just charming.’

Sophia was spotted by a BBC casting director performing in a school play aged just 16, and landed her first role in BBC costume drama The Prince and the Pauper.

Since then, Sophia has been compared to Kate Winslet and told she also bears a close resemblance to Leonardo DiCaprio. ‘Kate Winslet and then Leonardo DiCaprio? I thought they were having a laugh,’ she giggles. ‘But then magazines said I looked like his younger sister. So maybe if they make Titanic 2, I could be their love child!’

But it could all have been so different. With her good A-level grades, Sophia was set to study philosophy at Cambridge. Instead, she decided to accept a handful of acting offers. ‘There I was on Mansfield Park, trying to bring Jane Austen to life, thinking: “I cannot believe I’m being paid for this”.’

And things are only getting better. Sophia’s recently been spotted around London in the passenger seat of the famous pink Thunderbirds car. ‘FAB 1 is the ultimate dream car,’ she grins. ‘I am so thrilled to be playing this iconic character on the big screen.’

If you can’t wait until next year’s release of the film to check out the gorgeous gal, she can be seen in vampire flick Underworld with Kate Beckinsale in September this year.

‘Sometimes I think it can’t go on like this because it’s too perfect,’ she confides. ‘But it’s fun and, if I could afford to, I would pay to do what I do. That’s how much I love it. I just think that while I’m on the wave I’m going to ride it until it breaks.’