Before meeting Kate Nash, the word people use to describe her to me is "bolshy", yet after spending the day with her, I have to disagree. The word insinuates a veneer, a sort of "laddette" hardness and Nash has a lot more soul than that. She's strong, driven and none of it's a front.
She's also quite sleepy and arriving at the Dorchester to play dress up for the day, is in desperate need of coffee. But then so would you if you'd just come back from touring America, gone straight to the premiere of a film you're in and got up at the crack of dawn to model for six hours.
Make no mistake, the Kate Nash machine is a 24/7 operation and it's driven by the woman, not the people surrounding her career. "She's always coming to us with new ideas," comments her manager. "It's pretty amazing."
The ideas that have recently come to fruition are her Christmas EP Have Faith With Kate Nash, out today, and acting in Brit film The Powder Room, in theatres now. With those two things done and dusted, she's busy writing a musical. Like I said, 24/7.
I'm a bit of a fan girl when it comes to Nash because me and my friends spent a lot of our twenties shouting along to 'Foundations'. It soundtracked the good times and bad times while making the heartbroken times feel a smidge less fatal.
But the freckly brunette who sang about the everyday and looked like the girl next door has long since evolved into a raven-haired siren who's all about vintage, loves a 1950s silhouette and has campaigned for Pussy Riot's freedom.
Commenting on her image, she says: "It would be weird if I was still dressing the same. Who has the same look from their teens through to their twenties? Some fans have said they miss Made Of Bricks, but that's still there and they can still listen to it.
"Most fans have always been supportive of me," she adds. "I try not to get too bogged down in all the image stuff and what the media thinks about it. It's not important to me."
Nash is not a woman who minces her words - there's no skirting round the issue or speaking in euphemisms. Interviewing her is a bit like having a very frank conversation with one of your best friends from school. She's never brittle or clippy, more "that's what I think, now let's have a cocktail".
Female empowerment is very much an ongoing theme in her work, but how does she feel about feminism?
I definitely identify and describe myself as a feminist and it's something that's important to me, but to be honest, I think there's too much discussion around it right now.
"There's lots of talk about certain things being right and then others things being wrong and I don't want anything to do with that." She adds: "We need to help girls feel more confident and good about themselves, not tell them what they're doing wrong."
"There needs to be a lot more action," she says. "What other young women - and men actually - need from us is good role models. People who can talk to them and mentor them. Some people have that person at home but lots don't and they need someone to look up to."
With that, the 26-year-old hops out of bed (it was far too comfortable to do the interview anywhere else) and prepares to head to the studio before dashing to do a gig in Germany.
The thing she's really looking forward to though, is December 25th. "I can't wait," she says, immediately beaming. "I love being in my parents' house, in my old bedroom, watching Lord of the Rings. I always look forward to giving them their presents - it really means a lot to me. I get excited just thinking about it."
Less than five minutes later she's gone - hugging everyone goodbye, collecting Twitter names, off to the next performance, project and party. The general consensus on her departure? Dead nice, slightly heartbroken the shoot is over. Kate Nash - the best friend who got away.
Kate was shot at the Dorchester Hotel in London. Book your own night before Christmas here.
MORE! See our Night Before Christmas shoot starring Kate here.
LISTEN! Get into the festive mood with this track from Kate's Christmas EP Have Faith With Kate Nash...