'Oh no, that is a fake,' she says. I have got fakes on Facebook, Bebo, MySpace – the lot – and it's quite annoying. I can't understand why people put themselves on there. Some of the pictures that they put up of themselves make them vulnerable because anyone can see. I think the internet is very scary.'

'I do get stopped and sometimes it may be difficult to deal with, but I would much prefer to pay that price than not have any freedom. It's normally just tourists who shout “Hermione!” and chase after me. I have been in town with friends and been chased down the street and have had to hide in shops. Dixons is my favourite hiding place. I shouldn't be telling you this because it won't be my hiding place any more, but I go and hide behind the computers because that is the last place they expect you to be.'

When asked, in jest, if she has a glass of wine with her favourite food (she loves eating at Carluccio's) she points out that having spent the first five years of her life in France she had her first watered-down wine when she was about three. When I suggest that such an idea won't go down well in America – where the alcohol age limit is 21 – she is not afraid to offer a forthright opinion.

'What is that about? You can go to war for your country but you can't have a beer to celebrate? It's mad. I much prefer the European way in which alcohol is naturally introduced into family life.'