Saw this on This is Derbyshire today

Derbyshire teenager Georgia Groome will be following in the footsteps of Keira Knightley by starring in the latest film from the director of Bend It Like Beckham.

Gurinder Chadha has cast Georgia, from Coxbench, in the lead role of Angus, Thongs and Full Frontal Snogging, adapted from Louise Rennison’s bestselling book series.

Backed by Paramount and Nickelodeon the film was shot in Brighton, Eastbourne and London as well as Ealing Studios last year. It’s a modern coming of age story described as a “British Clueless” which Chadha is hopeful will lead to sequels. If so, it could mean fame for Georgia, the former Derby Youth Theatre member, who made a highly-regarded film debut in cinemas last year in the gritty drama London to Brighton.

Georgia, who is 16 next month, has already had a taste of what to expect.

She said: “It’s really quite scary – the film is not even out for months and yet there have already been stories in the papers because of Gurinder and the books being so well known.

“Lot of fans have started emailing me and Facebooking me. I had to get rid of Bebo because it got to the point where I didn’t have any friends from school on it. People were hacking my photos and it all got a bit scary.

“There are a lot of people sending me emails on Facebook asking questions – I get a couple of these daily already.”

Georgia has put a lot of time and hard work into her acting as well as juggling school work at Trent College, Long Eaton, where she aims to do well in her GCSEs this summer.

“I really enjoyed making the film but it was hard work and there are some people who think I have been on a four-month holiday who don’t understand all the early mornings and then all the catching up on school work at night,” she says.

“I didn’t have any time off I think because I am in every scene. I don’t think anybody realised how much screen time my character has.”

Georgia also knows that she will be carrying the weight of expectations of the many fans of the book’s heroine, also called Georgia.

“There’s a lot on my shoulders because it is the Georgia Nicholson series and a lot of fans have their own idea of what she should be like. I know what I thought Harry Potter should be like before they cast Daniel Radcliffe. I know people on the Internet Movie Data Base have completely opposite ideas and you just have to let it go because no one has even seen me do it yet.”

Georgia hadn’t read Louise Rennison’s tales of teenage angst until she got the part.

“I knew of them but I wouldn’t say I was a super fan,” she says. “But there are 25-year-olds that are still into them. Louise has written a book a year and some people have grown up with them. I read the first one and it was laugh out loud funny.”

After the success of London to Brighton and signing up with London agent Ruth Young, Georgia has landed parts in several new films due for release in 2008 but Angus, Thongs and Full Frontal Snogging is the most high profile.

“At first I didn’t really want to go but my agent said, ‘It’s Gurinder and Paramount and at this stage it’s about meeting people and putting yourself out there’.

“I thought it might be like High School Musical 3 and really Disneyfied but I met Gurinder and she’s lovely and she said the whole point was not to be like that and that was why she was doing it.”

Also on the slate for Georgia is The Cottage, the latest film from Paul Andrew Williams, the director of London to Brighton.

“Paul has told me I can be in everything he does,” says Georgia. “It’s a spoof horror thriller and my sister Eden and me play farmers’ daughters locked up in a cellar. Andy Serkis is playing the lead role. It was only a couple of days shooting but it was a lot of the same crew as London to Brighton.”

Georgia has also filmed a thriller about disappearing children and a short film for Andrea Arnold the director of the acclaimed Red Road.

She’s quick to say that her success is down to the support she has had from her school and the invaluable experience she has had in classes and productions in and around Derby.

She cites her drama teacher mum Fiona Watson, her Derby Youth Theatre director Pete Meakin and Carlton Workshop as among the reasons she has got this far.

She’s particularly upset that the workshop, where director Shane Meadows finds talent, is facing closure due to lack of cash.

“Without that I wouldn’t have got London to Brighton and had the skills I needed. It’s really valuable for craft and people skills and for giving you confidence. The people coming out of it are doing amazing things.”

Georgia is now putting her acting career on the backburner for a while to concentrate on her exams.

“I can’t say if I will still be doing this in 10 years so I have to have something to fall back on,” she says. “And Trent College have worked hard with me and been so supportive.

“It’s only six months until the film comes out and then, hopefully, we will start filming the sequel and I can get back out there but I don’t want to be out of school for another five months right now.”

By exam time, Georgia could be enjoying new-found fame if the film is as big a hit as Bend It Like Beckham. But although Georgia loves the work, fame is not what she seeks.

“I have respect for actors with high profiles but who are not on the Heat cover every week,” she says. And mum Fiona strikes a cautionary note.

“It can be really embarrassing if someone shouts at you and you just want to walk into Top Shop. If you ask me how do I feel about my daughter being the next Keira Knightley I say I don’t want that, I don’t think Keira Knightley wants that for herself.

“No parent seriously wants that for their child. I think you just don’t court that kind of publicity and still do normal things.”