Anna Popplewell is going places.

Having just returned from promoting Prince Caspian, the sequel to Narnia, in the US where it's expected to be a box office smash, you'd think a play in Oxford would be a walk in the park.

But Anna, 19, is terrified and says opening in Spring Awakening on Wednesday at The Playhouse is far more daunting than starring in a Hollywood blockbuster.

Anna plays Susan Pevensie. the eldest sister in the Narnia films, but by day she is a first-year student studying English at Magdalen and cramming for her end of year exams in Oxford.

"I got a few funny looks during lectures when I first arrived but then it's a while since Narnia came out so most people are quite normal about it," she smiles.

"And anyway, there are so many extraordinary people in Oxford doing extraordinary things that I don't stand out at all."

So how does she fit it all in? "There's lots of juggling going on. I have literally just got back from two weeks in the States on a press junket so there are lots of balls in the air. But that's a conscious decision. No one has forced me to work, study and play all at the same time," she says. "Let's just say that during term time I don't get a lot of sleep.

"But I can't really complain about it. I just catch up on my sleep in the holidays.

"And university is such a wonderful place.

"Without wanting to sound pretentious about it, you get to learn an awful lot about yourself and other people. "

When Anna returned to Oxford she had to hit the ground running, with two weeks of rehearsals for Spring Awakening to catch up on.

"The play was at a crucial stage and I realised I had to get my act together, so I've been working really hard," she says.

Having been awarded the Cuppers Prize in 2007, for Best Supporting Actress in the student production Five Kinds of Silence there should be no worries there.

So why is she so daunted?

"Well it's a big working playhouse so just dealing with the sheer scale of it is daunting.

"But I'm really looking forward to it. Acting on stage is so different to films because you can't spend four days shooting one scene, you take two hours doing the whole play," she laughs. "I just hope people come to see it."

Spring Awakening is a tale of adolescent sexual discovery and was censored in Britain for more than 80 years, but Anna relishes the role and its contrast to Narnia.

"Being part of Oxford's student drama companies has been an incredible experience because there is so much room for learning in Oxford, " she says.

"You can take risks here on stage and if it doesn't work out you can go to the pub and forget about it without a studio peering over your shoulder saying 'you can't do that' or 'the audience won't like this'. Here you're allowed to be independent and creative."

Postponing her education was never an option for Anna though, even when the film roles started pouring in (Anna has also had parts in Girl With A Pearl Earring, Mansfield Park and Little Vampire).

"I've always wanted to go to university and although I've been acting since I was six, school always came first, so wherever I was filming I always had a tutor.

"I see my degree as a steep learning curve and I'm doing it for myself, not anyone else.

"But I only made a decision in the past six months that it's what I wanted to do," she tells me.

"Until then it was more of a hobby, but I found the filming of Caspian really challenging and decided that's what I would like to do with my life. It's just never really felt like work before.

"Besides I'm only 19 and I've got the rest of my life to act."

You can see Anna in Spring Awakening from Wednesday at Oxford Playhouse.

Call 01865 305305 for tickets.