If you were to watch any of Lara Heller’s recent movie appearances you would know to expect a strong, powerful women to be sitting across from you when you speak to her.

Upon meeting her, I am greeted with exactly this.

Lara is charming and chirpy, with a smile that would most likely light up the room - were there not a ridiculous amount of beaming sunshine streaming through the windows as we talk.

However, she is also far more than this.

She is a strong, confident, woman who is extremely knowledgeable and very aware of how she comes across.

It’s something that truly has to be admired.

As we sit, we discuss Lara’s life, upbringing, and the fact that we share common ground in the fact that both of our mothers are Iranian, and we both absolutely adore the Star Wars franchise.

Whilst it would be possible to write this piece on both of those topics, that’s not why we are meeting today.

We’re sitting to discuss Lara’s latest movie appearance, in the hard-hitting, action packed, Welcome to Curiosity.

The fast paced thriller tells the tale of four interconnected stories, all of which revolve around a notorious serial killer and their escape from prison.

It is a historic flick in the way that it is the first movie ever made to have its entire crowdfunding budget to be raised solely through crowdfunding, and has an all British cast.

Whilst she now splits her time, mainly between London and LA, Lara is originally from Brighton.

Despite this she is quite the international actress, she is fluent in English, Persian, German and French and I’m fairly sure that ‘accents’ would rank very highly in her list of special skills.

Although she is truly global in her abilities, Lara says that there was something very nice about being part of an all British cast, “Suddenly you’re on your home turf, which is nice. You speak the language, which is good. We were shooting out in Thailand for this other film called Troy: The Odyssey [released in 2017] and with that most of the crew were speaking Thai.

“Even in my very first film, The Cut [2014], the director was was chatting in German to me, the lead actor was French.

“So this film was just really nice, it’s as lovely but it’s a different experience when you’re on home turf because you can have banter and get the sarcasm and humour.”

In Welcome to Curiosity, Lara plays the role of the rebellious Duffy, but whilst she loves the part it isn’t the spot in the movie she originally auditioned for, “I came in and originally read for a female role. I told them that I’d prepped something for a male role and they were open enough to let me read it. We had fun with it in the room and they said they’d rewrite it.

“I love it when writers are flexible enough to mix it up with a role.

“They may have had it in their minds eye but they’re open to seeing something else; whether it’s another nationality or the opposite sex, they can just give a flavour you didn’t expect.”

It is this change of plans that Lara believes is proving that women are being more accepted in this high stakes roles, “I think it’s very exciting. I wish I could have seen Lara Croft as a kid, but I saw it a bit later, but I love to do these roles where girls can see it and want to be like that.

“It’s so exciting with these franchises, like Wonder Woman, and these stories and franchises that kids are growing up with where there’s this demand for action actors and actresses.”

As a self-proclaimed adrenaline junkie, Lara also relished the movies action-packed nature, “I’m hiding behind this car with Richard Blackwood, and you have to figure out how to roll and fall. There’s no soft mattresses, we’re not gently bouncing against this gravel floor, so something as simple as falling right, with a gun, and making sure that you’re safe is a useful skill to learn.”

Welcome to Curiosity is out on DVD, Blu-ray, HMV and on Amazon to buy.