A BARMAID who was spotted by casting directors outside a pound shop in York has landed a starring role in a major new film.

Simone Jackson, of Lindley Road in Clifton, was approached outside Poundworld in Coney Street and invited to try for a part in the latest adaptation of Wuthering Heights.

After auditioning for Bafta-winning director Andrea Arnold, Simone landed the part of servant Nelly Dean.

The film has since premiered at the Venice Film Festival, in cinemas around the world and is due to go UK-wide from tomorrow.

Simone, 23, who left school a year early without any GCSEs and had not acted before, said she hoped to continue acting as the experience has been one of the best of her life.

Recalling the moment she was approached in Coney Street, she said: “I took my little brother shopping and I gave him a couple of quid to go into the pound shop. Outside I saw some girls I know from my estate and I stopped to talk to them. A woman came over and stood in the middle of the conversation and she told me she was looking for fresh-faced actors to star in a feature film. I took a leaflet and she said to give her a ring.”

After auditioning and being offered the part, Simone was paid £400 a day to spend two months filming on the North York Moors at the end of last year.

Director Andrea Arnold assembled a cast of well-known characters including Kaya Scodelario, from Skins, and acting newcomers for the raw interpretation of the novel.

Former Canon Lee School pupil Simone, who was working at at Coopers Bar at York train station at the time of the audition and still works as a dance instructor, said she was carefully directed throughout filming so she always felt comfortable, but was allowed to improvise lines.

She said: “I am quite a confident person so I didn’t find it too difficult. I absolutely loved it. I never would have thought acting would be something I wanted to do.

“The best bit of it all was the people, they were brilliant. The director was awesome and she made me feel really comfortable.

“The film is completely different to how I expected it to be. It’s more art than anything else, it’s really gritty.”

Although she was too unwell with flu and a chest infection to attend the Venice Film Festival premier, Simone took family members and her boyfriend York Acorn ARLC player Joe Budd to the UK showing which opened the 25th Leeds International Film Festival.

She said: “I took my mum and dad and they cried. My dad stops everybody to tell them who I am. He has got a photograph of me on his phone and shows everyone.

“It was really surreal to go to the premier because the estate we are from in Clifton is known to be quite a rough estate.

“Nobody that I know or anybody I have grown up with has known somebody being picked out to do something so good. I have been stopped by a lot of people who have said ‘well done, at last there’s something good going down for our estate’.”

• Wuthering Heights will be shown at City Screen and Vue from Friday.