Lily James may be the new darling of Hollywood – but she admits she still gets nervous.

The 25-year-old, who found fame as Lady Rose in Downton Abbey, stars in Kenneth Branagh’s new adaptation of Cinderella.

“It does feel like everything has happened quite fast. I’ve just been working so much. You go, ‘Oh God, am I really here? Is that actually me on that poster?’,” the Surrey-born actress said.

Lily James in Cinderella
Lily James as Cinderella (Jonathan Olley/Disney)

“I think Downton Abbey has been amazing for me, because it meant I was seen for something like this and put in rooms with people I want to work with. I’m so grateful,” she added.

But Lily said she feels some trepidation before her red carpet appearances.

“In my hotel room before a red carpet or premiere, I get so nervous, because it’s ‘you’ [rather than a character].”

Lily James
Lily James (Todd Williamson/Invision)

Lily, who is in a relationship with former Doctor Who star Matt Smith, said she is hankering after a contemporary role following Cinderella, Downton and a TV adaptation of Tolstoy’s 1869 novel War And Peace, which she’s currently filming.

“I just want to feel really challenged, and push myself, so I think the best way of doing that is by doing something completely different,” she said.

“I’m going to say to my agent, ‘Jeans, no bra, T-shirt and a cigarette, much more like me’.”

Cinderella is in cinemas now.