She is a graduate of the same acting school as De Niro, Monroe and Pacino and her CV boasts tractor driving skills and a starring role in a Zovirax commercial.

Despite all that, Southend actress Samantha Pilley is still waiting for Hollywood to beat a path to her door.

The 25-year-old from Moseley Street, Southchurch, isn't one to wait around however. Instead she's taken matters into her own hands and rather than waiting for the work to come to her, she's creating her own.

Since graduating from the prestigious Lee Strasberg Institute of Method Acting in New York in 2004, Samantha has taken on roles in a number of corporate films and local productions, but she's now taking direct action.

"The main thing I want to concentrate on now is doing my own thing," explains Samantha. "I want to choose what I do without having to rely on an agent. I know what I like, so it makes sense for me to make my own decisions."

Samantha has written her own short film and, with no time to waste, she's starting to work on it. She's got the location, she's got the production crew, all she needs now are some fellow actors to help her out.

The film entitled In Between is about three friends and their very different lives.

"It started when my friend Kerry and I were talking about this woman who came forward in the press a while ago saying how all mothers are secretly depressed and bored with their children," says Samantha.

"We started having a debate about it. My friend was pregnant and said she wanted to go back to work straight away, and I was debating the other side of the argument. She ended up saying you should write a play about it."

So she did.

"It developed into three girls who go to a cafe regularly and have been friends all their life," says Samantha.

"One is a business woman who is very organised and has obsessive compulsive disorder, which is something I'm fascinated by. The other is very motherly and the third is a bit of a dark horse.

"She comes across as being very promiscuous but you don't find out the real reason for it until the end."

Anyone who joins Samantha in the cast will be able to pick up some of her method acting tips.

Although she has said that whoever is chosen to play the part of the promiscuous woman won't have to prove their credentials in too much detail.

For Samantha, who has performed at every opportunity from a young age, her year in New York proved to be the biggest learning curve.

"It really was about stripping away everything I'd ever learnt about acting and starting again." she says.

"The techniques were quite weird though. For the first hour of a four hour class we would have to relax our whole body, almost like meditating.

"I guess you can compare it to having a body massage and getting all the knots and tension out. This was the same idea. It was supposed to help you relax and release a lot of emotion. Then the improvisation could begin."

"They'd always have us in tears," she remembers. "Not from being horrible but from having to delve into our emotions.

"One minute you would be in fits of giggles and the next you were an emotional mess. Then after all that you were ready to do a scene," she laughs.

"I came back thinking Hollywood would be calling," smiles Samantha. "I've had bits and pieces but nothing that took me to Hollywood unfortunately."

Hollywood may be on hold but Samantha is hoping that once her short film is finished, she can swap the hills of LA for the shores of Southend and hold her own short film festival in March.

So who knows with skills that match the likes of De Niro, ambition that meets that of any movie mogul, Samantha and Southend could soon be giving Hollywood a run for its money.