"Very few writers write funny parts for women of my age. You end up mostly carrying trays and being somebody's mother. It's a curse of unimaginative writing for women over the age of about 35."

It was no surprise, therefore, that Juliet Stevenson found playing the lead role in the mature romantic comedy A Previous Engagement, a breath of fresh air.

Perhaps audiences will find the alternative plot-line refreshing, and Maltese audiences all the more so given the added bonus that the film is shot and its story line is based in Malta.

The story is about someone who takes her unadventurous husband on a family holiday to Malta. She has a secret agenda, however: a date made 25 years ago with her first love.

Stevenson fell in love with the script from page one. "It's a very sophisticated story: An impossibly romantic idea that two people would make a pledge to meet in 25 years' time and that that person would keep it. I think (director and writer Joan Carr-Wiggin) has used a comedic idea to express something quite profound... How you look at your life when you get to your middle years. And how this encounter of Juliet makes her rethink all the choices she's made."

The script was not the only thing Stevenson fell in love with. "I love Malta. I'd lived here as a child and I was very tempted by the idea of returning for a few months and it has everything going for it really," she says.

Is Malta supposed to symbolise an almost dream-like place? A sign that this is not real life - that these 'previous engagements' cannot really work?

"Malta worked as a good holiday destination... the characters had met on holiday. You could choose Rome, you could choose Moscow... but I suppose a self-contained island makes sense in a way."

Stevenson continues with the island analogy to describe the couple's relationship: "In a way their relationship was a kind of island. It wasn't connected to anything else. I suppose you could say it was a kind of symbolic landscape, but it was also very beautiful. Especially 25 years ago - it was idyllic. I know Malta's much more complicated than that but the Malta of my youth was very idyllic if you were on holiday here."

The actress brought her children along with her for the shoot. Does she find that career impinges on family life?

A definite "yes" follows. "I'm always trying to make the two things work. The children come first, always. But it's great when we have an opportunity like this to combine both. It was gorgeous for them. To be in Malta for four or five weeks is a gift."

Speaking of her children, would she recommend her career to them? "Well, I don't discourage and I don't encourage. My daughter loves acting... but I think I'd be happier if she did something else because I suppose you always want to protect your children from everything that might hurt them and it's a difficult profession and not everybody is lucky. But I leave them to make their own choices."

Other than film, Stevenson has worked extensively in theatre. She was invited to join the Royal Shakespeare Company straight after graduation. Does she prefer one medium to another?

"I have to do theatre from time to time because it is like going back to the source. I think it's where you learn your craft. It's where you are forged. Theatre is where you learn how to transform, how to inhabit other people's lives, skins. That's what the job is. Theatre involves a lot more skill than film acting." However Stevenson does more film these days because it's just more workable with her children.

The actress also passes on some wise advice to prospective and young actors: "Don't do it unless you're completely passionate and obsessive about it. You must see the whole journey through your working life as a working curve. There's no such thing as a rival; it's always about learning and your craft.

"Learn as much as possible. I'm a great believer in training, I don't believe in wandering off the streets and into a part. You have to train like in any other profession.

"And try to hold on to a sense of your own worth, your own value which is not vulnerable to what other people think of you. Rejection is a large part of the game. You have to work very hard to have a sense of your own value that is impervious to what the world is saying about you."

A Previous Engagement is currently showing at the Eden Century cinemas.