Amanda Fairbank-Hynes

Even when she slips up, British actress Amanda Fairbank-Hynes seems to land on her feet. When the 23-year-old fell and fractured her wrist on the set of Tomas Alfredson’s forthcoming adaptation of the John le Carré Cold War thriller Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, the intelligence reached Gary Oldman. “They were doing makeup to cover up the damage,” says Fairbank-Hynes, who plays the MI6 girl among a spy coterie that includes Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, and Mark Strong. “Gary Oldman walked in, and I hadn’t met him before, and he said, ‘You must be Amanda!’” Director Lone Scherfig first cast the Surrey-raised Fairbank-Hynes in An Education (2009) as the schoolgirl friend of Carey Mulligan’s character and has now given her the role of a love-struck party animal in July’s Anne Hathaway–Jim Sturgess friends-with-benefits drama One Day. It’s a great return for someone who only got into acting as a punishment. “When I was little, I was so quiet that my mother threatened me with drama class,” Fairbank-Hynes says. “She told me she’d send me to elocution, and I thought it was execution.” Now she’s remarkably quick to jump into performing: Give her a couple of tequilas and she’ll bang out karaoke, and she loves roles that allow her to be gregarious. Fairbank-Hynes also gets to boss around Selena Gomez as her “superbitch” antagonist this summer in the rom-com Monte Carlo. She’d never been to the States, but faked an American accent from watching movies, and clarifies that she has not always been above telling the odd white lie to score a role. “I once said that I could read music to get a part playing the piano,” she recalls.

Photos: Amanda Fairbank-Hynes in London, March 2011. Dress: Diane Von Furstenberg. Jacket and Shoes: Burberry Prorsum. Hair Products: Aveda, including Pure Abundance Volumizing Hair Spray. Styling: Nancy Rohde/Streeters. Hair: Chi Wong/Julian Watson Agency. Makeup: Lauren Parsons For Chanel/Premier Hair And Makeup Agency. Production: Justine Bayley/ Streeters. Special Thanks: Ace Cafe.