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With acting jobs notoriously scarce, even to be in such a position must surely provoke twinges of envy among her college contemporaries. “There’s no rhyme nor reason to it,” she says. “It’s frustrating for me — because I was with a group of incredibly talented, passionate people, from all walks of life, and who I think have naturally so much more talent than I do — that they’re not working. But there’s also an understanding that someone else’s success is not your failure.”

It could be years before she agrees with Gore Vidal that each time a friend succeeds, a piece of you dies, but a tendency to earnestness is not such a bad starting point. She was, she says, quite a serious, only child, and although she knew early on that she wanted to be an actress, her parents, who divorced when she was two, made sure that she was aware of every opportunity open to her before she made a decision.

Her mother and father seem to have been distinctly new-agey. Her father, a part-Native American former photographer, is now a shaman living in California. “I had quite an unconventional upbringing,” she says.

“I was exposed to a lot of things, a lot of worlds, a lot of religions, a lot of pathways, a lot of people.” At the tender age of nine, she even followed her parents in fire-walking over hot coals.

But did she know poor little rich girls like Catherine Fedden? “I knew of them,” she says. “I was terrified of them. I would go to parties and see them, and they would be very destructive, and I was not like that at all. I would hide with the mums and dads, and we’d have long discussions about life, love and the universe. When those girls were doing drugs, I was reading Descartes and wondering whether I should go to India.”

But the character of Catherine — Atwell had not read Alan Hollinghurst’s award-winning book before getting the role — held a real attraction for her when she read the script. “What I liked about her was that she was the sanest of the family, but she had no outlet for her creativity or frustrations. The only thing she could do was turn to self-harming as a way of getting attention. I loved her, I thought there was a real life to her, and an integrity.”

The reviews may have been great, but she has yet to be recognised much in the street. Appearing on a magazine cover recently was, she says, overwhelming for the few days before “the next girl was put on”. The week before our photo shoot, she went to the premiere of Farrell’s latest movie, Miami Vice; his co-star Naomie Harris was greeted by masses of clicking and shouting paparazzi, but when she went in after her, there was, she laughs, a whoosh of silence.

However, working with McGregor and Farrell day to day has given her a glimpse of what must be in store for her.

“I’ve had a taste of it, in Brighton and at Paddington station. People will come up to you and put a camera into your face, and then talk to you like you’re not there. It happened to me; it happened obviously more so to Ewan, and he’s very gracious about it.”

When people approach and ask for a picture, it is fine. “But it’s the ones who are hiding, who then just come up and put a phone in your face — they want a bit of you, but they’re not willing to interact with you. You feel like an object, and it’s quite a scary feeling.”

One can’t help but feel that within a very short time, she will be handling it with aplomb.