Just how lucky can a girl get? Actress Saffron Burrows is stunningly beautiful, has a figure to die for, and a flourishing stage and screen career.

But forget all that. The reason this London-born star is the envy of just about every woman in the world is the fact she spent most of last year holed up with Brad Pitt.

The 31-year-old former model spent months on location with the Hollywood hunk filming the epic Troy, opening on Friday May 21.

And, not surprisingly, she found her popularity suddenly soared.

"The amount of people who wanted to visit me on set was unbelievable," she laughs. "They were like, 'Oh can we, can we?!'.

"And there were endless questions, 'If we come, will he be there?'. And I said, 'He might be, he might not be. It might be a wasted trip, you might just end up having to see me'.

"People were absolutely extraordinary about it. But, who can blame them? He is devastatingly gorgeous."

And if that's not enough to bring out the green-eyed monster, the actress also found herself surrounded by a host of other heart-throbs, including Orlando Bloom, Sean Bean and The Hulk's Eric Bana.

She admits she wasted no time in bonding with them either.

"One of the highlights of the whole shoot was singing karaoke with Orlando in a bar in Mexico with a couple of his hobbit friends from Lord Of The Rings who had come over for a visit," she recalls. laughing.

"We all went for sushi with the hobbits and Sean Bean. It ended up this very funny, bizarre, mish-mash of hobbits and Troy characters singing karaoke and I thought, 'Now this is an adventure'."

Judging by her beaming expression it's clear the 6ft star still can't quite believe her good fortune at landing her plum role in the movie.

Shot on location in Malta and Mexico, the £145m film, based on Homer's epic poem The Iliad, is one of the most eagerly awaited of the year and boasts a stellar cast headed by Pitt, who plays Greek hero Achilles, and Bloom, who stars as Paris, Prince of Troy.

Peter O'Toole, Julie Christie, Brendan Gleeson and Brian Cox are just a few of the veteran stars who make up the impressive support cast.

Saffron, who plays Andromache, devoted wife of Hector (Eric Bana), says the sheer scale of the film left even the most experienced stars awestruck.

"We were all just stunned and overwhelmed when we saw the set," she recalls excitedly.

"We couldn't stop taking photos even though we weren't supposed to.

"The (Trojan) horse looks extraordinary. There are lots of cheesy shots of us next to that. Orlando's mum came on set and took endless shots of us beaming in our outfits.

"We were all very excited and definitely aware of the grand nature of it all and what was weird was that the first shoot was in Malta, where they shot Gladiator, and they'd not yet dismantled some of the Roman streets, so it was doubly exciting."

Saffron has a number of acclaimed films behind her, including, Circle Of Friends, Enigma, Gangster No 1 and last year's Oscar-nominated Frida, but Troy looks set to catapult her to international stardom.

However, the modest star says she definitely isn't looking for the level of fame experienced by her sought-after co-star.

"I'm not sure about that extreme Brad Pitt thing where people get feverishly bonkers around someone. I think you're altered forever," she says.

"I've seen it around Pierce Brosnan too and it gets a bit out of hand at times.

"I don't think that's being offered up for me, but I definitely think it's nice to have a life where you can stroll about unnoticed.

"Fame gets you a nice table in a restaurant but there's a lot that goes with it that goes against having a nice time."