Punch herself, by contrast, is nothing if not self-deprecating. “I was so glad I was wearing these rather baggy tweed trousers, because my knees were shaking,” she jokes. The calibre of the team on set – from the cast to the “spectacular” hair and make-up artists to “dreamboat” Mario Sorrenti behind the lens – “all conspired to make me a little nervous”, she says. “I found my mouth was getting rather stiff.”
Being cast by the brand may have been a curveball, but this isn’t the beginning of Punch’s relationship with Burberry. When the actor made her professional theatre debut in The Graduate at the Gielgud in 2000, her co-star Jerry Hall – who was playing Mrs Robinson – gifted her “the most beautiful Burberry overnight bag, with the check”, she tells me. “It was so beautiful, I’d never owned anything like that before, so it was really special. Later, I had the most beautiful olive trench coat with black buttons, I wore it for an audition, and I feel like it got me that job. A lucky trench!”
Rosie Huntington-Whiteley.
Mario Sorrenti
Neelam Gill.
Mario Sorrenti
Megawatt co-stars and luxury fashion campaigns aside, the resolutely low-key Punch (“I left finding an outfit for the BAFTAs until two days before, which caused major anxiety”) is now looking ahead to her next job, which is shooting in Canada, and the possibility of taking her Burberry check Harrington jacket to see Rice and co in action on the pitch when the World Cup kicks off in the US. “Ordinarily I don’t know very much about football, but I certainly get caught up in the big events,” she says. “I’m going to be filming in Vancouver, so I’ll definitely try and take my sons to a match… if I can snag some tickets.”
