SUSIE Amy reveals she has problems sleeping – and it's not hard to work out why.

The former Footballer's Wives star – she played the vacuous Chardonnay in the comedy drama – wants to squeeze the essence out of life.

It's not so much that she needs to become ultra famous, she can laugh at how some are prepared to go to any extent to land the big role, but that's not to say she's not ambitious.

Right now, she's set to appear in Glasgow with Murder on the Nile, the Agatha Christie first performed in 1944.

Susie plays socialite wife Kay, who is on honeymoon on a steamer in Egypt with husband Simon. But the couple are pursued by an old flame.

"She's a stalker," says Susie. When a body is discovered, all fingers point to Simon's ex-fiancée. However, everything is not what it seems.

"It's a really good part," says Susie. "I love taking the audience along on the journey."

Susie's career has also been an interesting journey. Now 31, she was spotted by an agent while at the National Theatre in London. Aged 20, she landed the role of Chardonnay Lane.

Susie walked away from the role and into the movie House of 9 with Dennis Hopper and mini-series La Femme Musketeer, starring Michael York and Gérard Depardieu.

"I spent three months in Croatia and played the female lead," she says of the series.

"Depardieu was alternative. He was such an eccentric. But I loved him for that. I think what that taught me about the film business is you don't always get what you expect." She also starred with Andy Garcia in Mick Davis' biopic of Italian artist Modigliani, and had "a fantastic time".

And more recently she appeared in the mock horror movie, Lesbian Vampire Killers. Such variety?

"It's not an easy profession," she admits. "When I was younger I was less realistic; you want to be in a major TV series, and then when you've done that you want to be in a film. But then when you do that you want to do something else.

"But having done some jobs you expected to be great they turn out not to be."

Susie's mum and dad are from Bellshill and Motherwell, in North Lanarkshire. She says: "They are two of the most down to earth people imaginable.

"When I complained to my dad once about feeling hounded (during Footballer's Wives) he smiled and said in a calm voice, 'Don't worry about it, Susie. It will pass and you can move on.'

"My parents are fantastic."

Susie went to LA, looking for her Hollywood break, and stayed with pal Kelly Brook.

"It was so funny," she says. "You sometimes get three pilot scripts a day and you can't prepare. Then you realise the other girls have had a blow dry that morning because people haven't been cast if their hair is too frizzy. It's crazy."

The star, who is dating Ireland rugby player Rob Kearney, admits she hasn't always auditioned perfectly. "I read this script once which described the character as 'like Old Mother Hubbard'.

"So I turned up for the audition with no make-up, spots on show, dark eyes, wearing a really drab brown cardie outfit.

THE casting directors were horrified. Then the actress who had gone before me came out looking all glamorous."

She adds, laughing: "I looked at the script later and realised the character I was up for had the 'attitude' of Old Mother Hubbard, not the look."

Auditions aside, Suzie keep busy with other things, such as topical discussion series The Wright Stuff, and has her own beauty-lifestyle website, blusherandblogging.com. She says: "I've always wanted to be a writer and this website has given me the chance to write about a world that really interests me."

The section on sleep is good, prompted by the fact Susie finds slumber hard to come by, especialy when she's in theatre.

She says: "I go home and work on the blog, and then I'll fall asleep around 3am. And because I want to do so much with every day I'm up early.

"But when you enjoy your life that's what you do."

l Murder on the Nile, the Theatre Royal, June 25-30, also stars Kate O'Mara, Chloe Newsome, Ben Nealon and Mark Wynter.