The tan may be Ibiza, but the accent, and particularly the machine-gun laugh, are unmistakably London. Jaime Winstone, the 26-year-old actress, is talking about her hair, which is currently Gwen Stefani blond and swishy, but which she changes dramatically at least four times a year. "I need to get it back to dark for a role," she says. "But I've been told I can't put any more colour in it."
What, ever again? "Nah," she cackles. "This month."
We are in the Wagamama noodle bar on London's South Bank, where Winstone is promoting Art and Eat, an art-and-dining initiative that will put the work of 10 up-and-coming artists on the walls and placemats of the restaurant chain from next week. The canvas of inner-city artist Holly Thoburn, however, is somewhat overshadowed by the petite figure "vogueing" for the photographer in front of it.
Winstone is wearing Chloë Sevigny heels, a Horace skirt and a vintage silk top with a tiger motif on the reverse that – though obviously I don't say it – calls to mind Rocky Balboa's leather jacket. Her lips are metallic purple and she wears a pendant made from a protective crystal, a gift from her sister who was worried that Jaime's social life was becoming too wild.
"This is my art canvas," she says, gesturing from quiff to toes. "As an actress you have to keep yourself fresh and new. I get bored pretty easily too."
There was little danger of boredom on her most recent project, Elfie Hopkins, where Winstone plays her first title role; she also helped devise the characters with director Ryan Andrews and guided the film into production over four years. Elfie is an aspiring detective in a deep, dark place that might be Wales who is convinced that a family of cannibals have moved into the village. "It's heightened fantasy in very real surroundings," she explains, "like a Tim Walker shoot come to life."
It is also the first time that Winstone – who made her name with spiky performances in Kidulthood and Made in Dagenham – has shared the screen with her dad, Ray. "The thought of it was quite scary," she says, "but, when it came to it, it was the most natural thing I'd ever done."
Winstone is instinctively drawn to dark materials, and admits that Elfie Hopkins might not be to everyone's tastes. "It's our first project so our next ones are going to be darker, more fantastical, much bigger – we hope," she says with a mini-cackle. "We've already got one in the pipeline that's really insane. There's a gap in the British film market that needs filling and Ryan and I are happy to do that."
Art and Eat launches on Thursday 29 September. Elfie Hopkins is out in October