Raised in New Jersey, vegetarian Anne is a devout Christian who once considered dedicating her life to the Church. Preferring fundraising trips to red carpet appearances, Anne is funny, light-hearted and wise beyond her years. Here she talks about life in New York, being friends with Angelina Jolie and her latest flick

The Devil Wears Prada, starring Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci, is based on the best-selling novel about an assistant working for a demanding editor, said to be modelled on Vogue editor Anna Wintour. The role of the assistant Andy, the young naif who comes to New York to work in fashion, is perfectly suited to Anne's wide-eyed innocent looks.

But in reality she is no gullible fool, having earned her acting stripes as Jake Gyllenhaal's long-suffering wife Lureen in gay cowboy epic Brokeback Mountain - despite the fact it was only the ninth film she had made.

I'm more proud of the film than anything I have ever created. By the end of Princess Diaries 2, I was ready to do something completely different. I got into this not to typecast myself. I got into it to be an actress, to scare the sh*t out of myself, and force myself into a place outside of my comfort zone.

I love my job, but if it means hurting someone, I won't do it. I mean, that being said, I will go after a part but I do have limits. I won't do anything to get it, like I've never done a drive-by shooting or anything like that. But I've thought about it! I stop short of cut-throat. It's competitive, and it's hard, but it's not worth selling out your soul for.

It's still this feeling I have every once in a while of wanting to go into the service. Obviously, I don't think I'm a good enough person - I like hedonism a little bit too much! But I love the idea of being completely devoted to service, zero vanity. I think you get a lot of spiritual freedom.

I do disagree with a couple of the stances of the Catholic Church. The most important one to me is because my older brother is gay. It's important for me to be able to love him completely and freely and it's important for me to spread beliefs in the world that are not going to limit people in their love. I'm a nondenominational Christian, and it's important to know yourself in life. For me, my family is a huge priority and that choice was really clear, I didn't need to struggle with that.

I learned that fashion magazines don't have numbered pages, so they make you read all the advertisements first. And now I'm a bit more specific about looks that I want to create for myself.

What is your worst boss story in real life?

That would make me sound like an awful human being: she was three years old! My only other job besides acting has been babysitting, and I tried everything - singing songs, sprinkling fairy dust on her, everything - but this little girl did not like my bag of tricks. I was 15 and her parents came home and asked, 'Do you want to baby-sit for her again?' And I was like, 'No!'

Did she? Okay, that's my gold star of the day, thank you very much.

He's hysterical. He's so witty, you would think he was a Brit. There is a different level of linguistic control and execution across the pond. He's just a genius. One day he kept elbowing me in the breast - he wasn't doing it to be a dirty old man but every single take in one scene, he would just smack me in my boob.

If you're a girl, you know that hurts so after about the fourth time I finally turned to him, and I was like, 'Stanley, can you please stay away from my tits?' And he got really flustered and went, 'Well what do you expect? You're flinging those melons around like it's harvest season!'

I just thought that was the most brilliant thing. It became an oft-quoted line on set.

I was frightened at how little I knew myself, and how I didn't know my priorities. I thought that might lead me to a place where I could make really bad decisions so I took some time off, and got to really know myself.

I have lived in L.A. when I'm working, but when I'm not working, my time is really precious to me and I don't want to be in a place where I'm not happy. I don't get LA. I don't know what to do with myself out there. I can't be in the sun. I've got really pale skin. I'm not a throw-lemon-juice-in-my-hair, grab-the-surfboard kind of girl. I like New York for what it offers. It lets me be my brainy, geeky, yet somewhat-fashionable self. It lets me be me.

When Angie came along to give me that opportunity, it was something I wanted to do for a long time. I've been working with a lot of domestic charities but that was my first international thing and I definitely caught the bug. She gave me such an extraordinary gift by letting me be part of that project. She gave me a new perspective from which to view life.

I used to hate my thighs. Now I'm grateful they weren't blown off by a landmine. It's just an amazing perspective to have on life, and to have it so young. I feel like the rest of my life is such a gift and filled with so much potential and possibility as opposed to anxiety - which is what I used to feel.

Sleeping!