I grew up on Anjelica Huston as Morticia in The Addams Family, and The Grand High Witch in The Witches - and so when I was invited to meet her, childhood memories of this tall grand woman with a strong imperious nose, long black fingernails and a stern demeanour came flooding back

What I met at Claridges Hotel in London, couldn't have been further from those chilling childhood recollections. Instead I found an elegant, slender and impeccably dressed woman, with shiny jet black hair, a warm welcoming smile (the sort that makes you feel a bit special) and sparkly eyes that convey just a hint of mischief.

She is magnetic, and bewitching in her own right, but not in the black cat and broomstick sense. Having forged a vast and diverse CV, Huston continues to delight contemporary audiences with her performances in films like The Royal Tenenbaums and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, at the same time as having her roots firmly moulded from the golden era when she grew up surrounded by the likes of Hepburn and Monroe.

As we talked, I soon became completely absorbed as we skipped down her memory lane of Bogey, Bacall, Hepburn and other 'family friends' - her father being acclaimed director, John Huston (Casino Royale, The Misfits). She is completely at ease, totally unfettered by the world of Hollywood, and I instantly wanted to be her new best friend. (If you're reading, Anjelica, call me - ok?)

Today she has come full circle, having just attended the premiere for her latest film These Foolish Things, which also features her old friend Lauren Bacall. Bacall was in her father's inner circle of friends, and one of the first people he told that Angelica was born while they were on location in the Belgian Congo filming The African Queen (Bacall was accompanying her husband Humphrey Bogart). According to Anjelica, a runner raced through the jungle and into their camp one night and handed her father telegram. 'My father opened it, read it, and stuffed it back in his pocket' says Anjelica. `Then five minutes went by, and nobody said anything until Bacall finally said 'For Christ sakes John, what's in the telegram?' to which he replied 'It's a girl, it's Anjelica''

In the 1950s her father, John Huston, relocated his family to Galway, Ireland after becoming disillusioned with McCarthyism in America. Angelica remembers a quiet childhood: 'we lived in a quite remote part of the Irish countryside, and I had tutors until I was about nine or ten, so I mostly dressed up on the lawn and imagined things.' Living on the family estate, riding ponies and fishing - Angelica seemed well protected from the renown of her father and his work. 'I met a lot of actors and actresses but I wasn't really on my father's sets for the duration of any given film' she says. And like any young girl, she admired the glitzy, glamorous women in Hollywood at the time: 'I remember casting a jealous eye on Eva Gardner at about the age of nine, and thinking "that is what I want to be."' She says 'I think from an early age I had an idea that that's where the juice was, in those exalted glamorous creatures'.

It wasn't until the 1969 film A Walk With Love and Death that a 16-year-old Angelica made her screen debut, under the direction of her father. She has few fond memories of making her first film though, 'I didn't like the character; I wanted to be an exalted creature, not a 15th-century French heroine with no make-up'. Tensions on set ran high between the two Hustons 'he was granting me my life's wish, and here I was reluctant, obstinate and unprepared' she says. 'I think I was a big disappointment to him on that one and it took a good 15 years to right that wrong.'

Angelica spent much of the 70s dabbling in modelling and hooking up with the likes of renowned womaniser, Jack Nicholson, who she ended up having a rocky, yet longstanding, 17-year relationship with. And despite the odd small role in the likes of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Angelica spent more time in the tabloids than she did on the big screen.

Success came to her in the form of Richard Condon's mafia inspired book, Prizzi's Honour. 'I was doing a part for John Foreman in a film called Ice Pirates, which was a B Movie about...Ice Pirates!' Foreman, who had been the producer on one of Huston senior's films, The Man Who Would Be King, approached Anjelica and asked what she thought of the part of mafia spinster, Maerose. Anjelica fell in love with the character, but the real challenge was in persuading her father to direct it, and Jack Nicholson to take the lead role of Charley Partana.

'We had to get Jack and my Dad together, and my father was down in Mexico watching the Olympics on TV, while Jack was famously entrenched on Mulholland Drive' which was later nicknamed 'Bad Boy Drive' following the antics of its wild Hollywood residents, including - alongside Nicholson - Warren Beatty and Marlon Brando. While Foreman was insistent that she encourage the two to get together, Angelica was adamant, saying 'I'm not getting between those guys - in the Mexican Jungle? You've got to be kidding!' Eventually Nicholson made his own way to Mexico, where, according to Angelica he 'sat in front of the girl gymnasts with my father for half an hour and said 'great, I'll do it!''

Angelica enjoyed making Prizzi's Honour far more than she had her first film, mainly for the research. 'I went to church, Jack went to gaming parlours, and we all ate lots of Italian food and hung out with gangsters, it was great!' And it paid off. Angelica won the best supporting actress Oscar for her portrayal of Maerose, which she describes as 'a huge moment, an out-of-body experience'. She says 'it was like total vindication for the struggle and the critics who had said that I was plain, unattractive and untalented from A Walk with Love and Death'.

Angelica Huston's Oscar now takes pride of place in her office, and she looks back on the night with mixed emotions. 'The thing about the Oscars is it's never just 'bravo, I've won!' she explains. 'It's a) 'what am I going to wear?' b) 'what if I get called up and have to say something?' then you hope and pray you're not going to be called up.' But Angelica - who has also been nominated for academy awards for her work in Enemies, a Love Story and The Grifters - also knows what it's like not to win. 'Everyone takes your picture on your way in - it's all 'Angelica! Angelica!'' she says. 'And then you lose, and no one takes your picture on the way out!' she laughs. 'So it's an evening of many different levels.'

Huston's latest movie, These Foolish Things, is set in the 1930s and sees her playing a sharp-talking no-nonsense American darling, with both the passion and wealth to help a young theatre group produce their play. The film won't set box office figures on fire, but features a cast of young Brit actors, including Zoe Tapper (Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky) and Andrew Lincoln (Love Actually, Teachers), plus some older hands notably Terence Stamp and Lauren Bacall.

Huston clearly enjoyed working with her old friend whom she describes 'can look like a little bird, but at the same time, she can terrify people.' She says 'that's what makes her a great actress; she is capable of going through all facets.' On Stamp she is equally complimentary. 'He is an extremely surprising actor; his delivery is brilliant and dry, and his wit is great'.

The future for Huston seems busy. Plans are afoot for her to work with director Wes Anderson, whom she worked with on The Royal Tenebaums and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. She is also planning to direct three movies of her own over the next year. At 54, it seems Angelica Huston has one foot firmly planted in a colourful past, with fascinating stories that could provide hours of entertainment. Yet she also has an eternally youthful quality that allows her to appreciate new levels of creativity, keeping her firmly routed in the future and allowing her to continue striding through Hollywood, with or without her broomstick in tow.

These Foolish Things is out now