ABOVE: Rose wears: Shirt, £850, and skirt, £6,500, both Ralph Lauren (020-7535 4600); necklace, price on request, and ring, £7,800, both Boodles (020-3435 4400). Photography: Mary McCartney

Act two: success

The youngest of four, Rose was brought up in the suburbs of Sydney by her primary school administrator mother Jane and statistician father Robin. While the rest of us were watching The NeverEnding Story, Robin took his young family including an 11-year-old Rose to see her first film in the cinema; Jean De Florette.

“I’ll never forget that,” she says. “The beautiful French village and the hunchback and Gérard Depardieu; it was really amazing. That was a seminal point in films and how they could be so effective and poignant and memorable.” She laughs and then reassures me that her dad is really a down-to-earth sort of bloke, just also a Francophile with a high-brow thirst for culture. She then recalls how as ‘a punter’, he won big at the horses and used the winnings to take Jane and the children travelling around the world when Rose was eight.

“I’ve been very lucky with my parents and their generosity,” she smiles. “They gave all of us a real travel bug and curiosity about life.” As for films, Rose started early with a role in Australian film Dallas Doll when she was 15 (she was also in Heartbreak High for three episodes), and in her late teens, she took a chance and gave up her university degree in Sydney after two years to take up acting full time. Happily, Rose worked non-stop with smaller roles in Troy, I Capture The Castle, Marie Antoinette and 28 Weeks Later, and then the gamble really paid off when she won a part in political drama Damages which saw her gain a wide and loyal fan base, several Emmy and Golden Globe nominations, and international recognition.

“My only plan was to work internationally,” she tells me. “I’m driven so I wanted to be successful. I think, being Australian, we have a real lust for life. I started acting so young and I did start to think, ‘Am I doing this because I’ve been doing it for so long?’ And then I came full circle and I just wanted to get better and improve. I feel very grateful to have found it. It’s been a saviour for me.”

One thing Rose has certainly got better at is comedy. At first, the brilliant Jackie Q in 2010’s Get Him To The Greek, then Bridesmaids and I Give It A Year; next The Internship with comedic heavyweights Will Ferrell and Owen Wilson.

Act three: fun

“I’d wanted to try comedy for years,” she says. “I was really nervous but I’ve got a healthy sense of humour. I’m from Australia! But for me, comedy is far harder. The stakes are higher; it’s just as dramatic and you have to get a laugh too. And it’s arbitrary – what I find funny, you may not.

“I’m not a Will Ferrell or a Kristen Wiig or an Owen Wilson who can make anything funny. I’m only funny if I’m playing a specific character and in a situation and then it provides the laugh.” Working with Kristen and Melissa McCarthy and Maya Rudolph on Bridesmaids must have been an amazing learning curve then?

“Absolutely. All those girls are from prestigious improv comedy schools like The Groundlings and the Upright Citizens Brigade. Watching them work was just brilliant. They would find what they found funny first and then work on it and rev it up. But in Bridesmaids and in this film, I’m the straight man. I’d like to do something more extreme and get the gags too.” So would you want to be, say, the next Jennifer Aniston?

“Firstly, I don’t think I could compare myself to Jennifer Aniston ever,” she laughs. “But you can’t really compare yourself to anybody. That way lies madness. You have to run your own race. Comparing yourself to people is a losing game; there will always be someone else’s career you would prefer. Work on what you have and what is in your control. As I’ve gotten older I’ve learnt that.”

No funny business: Rose Byrne