County actress lands film role

A Shropshire actress has her sights set on a glittering career in Hollywood after landing roles in two big-budget movies.

Helen Soraya Wagstaff, from Albrighton near Shifnal, is hoping to follow in the footsteps of British screen starlets such as Kate Winslet and Sienna Miller after winning the highest profile roles of her career.

The 27-year-old has just finished shooting fantasy adventure The Golden Compass, which stars Daniel Craig and Nicole Kidman and is expected to be one of the year’s biggest films when it hits cinemas in the autumn.

And she is now working at Pinewood Studios on a movie version of acclaimed Abba musical Mamma Mia, alongside the likes of Colin Firth, Meryl Streep, and Pierce Brosnan.

She said: “Acting has always been my dream. I used to put on little plays for my parents and even made a little stage area and put out the seats with their names on for them to watch. They really are very pleased for me.

“At the moment I’m loving Mamma Mia. We’re having so much fun on set and surrounded by such amazing actors and directing team it’s very surreal.

“I have to keep pinching myself to check that it’s real.”

Although she doesn’t share the screen with Daniel Craig or Nicole Kidman in The Golden Compass, Helen has several scenes with Craig’s Casino Royale Bond girl Eva Green, who she described as “delightful”.

And her work has already caught the eye of Hollywood talent scouts.

She revealed: “While I was on the Compass set there were various directors over, either visiting or filming in the different studios, and I was approached by the William Morris agency asking me to go over to Los Angeles for interviews with them.”

Helen is not the only young star putting Shropshire on the movie map - former Shrewsbury schoolboy Max Brown, 26, can currently be seen on the big screen in horror thriller Paradise Lost.