Euphoria fills Abigail Hardingham’s voice as she recounts the moment Colin Farrell presented her with Best Newcomer at the British Independent Film Awards (BIFA).

“When I saw it was him I was like ‘please don’t say my name’ as I knew I would freak out. And then when he did, the whole world turned upside-down and I was going ‘what do I do?’ “I literally ran up and it has been crazy from that moment.”

The Leytonstone actress picked up the gong at a celebrity-packed ceremony at the Old Billingsgate in London for her first ever lead role in quirky horror flick Nina Forever.

The 24-year-old plays a trainee paramedic, who falls in love with her supermarket co-worked Rob (Cian Barry). Rob is suicidal following the death of his girlfriend, Nina (Fiona O’Shaughnessy) in a car accident. But when they go to bed, Nina literally comes back to haunt them during their most intimate moments.

Accepting the award, whose previous recipients include Jamie Bell and Ben Whishaw, Abigail thanked the film’s producer Cassandra Sigsgaard and writers and directors Ben and Chris Blaine for the ‘amazing opportunity’.

Abigail, who grew up in High Wycombe and moved to London aged 16 to pursue acting, was also delighted to get a kiss from Colin backstage.

“I’m still trying to digest it all really,” she says speaking to me on Tuesday.

“Colin was trying to make some jokes as I was having a full on panic attack.

“I screamed in Maxine Peak’s face that I loved her as she was waiting off stage as I came off.”

The young star also caught up with Best Supporting Actress winner Olivia Coleman, who she worked with briefly on the second series of Broadchurch, and met Best Actress winner Saoirse Ronan in the toilets.

Other winners on the night included Tom Hardy who won Best Actor for East End filmed Krays biopic Legend and Forest Gate-born actor Chiwetel Ejiofor who was given The Richard Harris Award for Outstanding Contribution by an Actor to British Film.

Abigail, who went to Sir William Ramsey School pupil with Leigh-Anne Pinnock from Little Mix, plans to keep her gong at her parents home saying: “I have three siblings who all went to university and I was the only one who didn’t so maybe that can be like my graduation- I passed.”

She had her first taste of performing at Jackie Palmer’s stage school and her first proper experience of acting in MySpace online drama Freak,which by coincidence was filmed in Leytonstone.

“It was really weird as I recognised it all when I moved there about six years ago and my house is a five-minute walk from where I started acting, which is kind of cool.

“I love it there. I have been there for the longest I have ever been anywhere.”

Abigail landed the role in Nina Forever when she was 21 and says: “I really wanted that part so it was a real high five moment.

“She is just such a complicated, fleshed-out female character. At that age I was getting 18 or 19 year old roles and I find maybe men particularly don’t know how to write for young women and even some women don’t know how to write for young women because most people writing are in their late 20s or early 30s and they write dialogue like ‘Yo, yo, what’s up’.

“But her dialogue was so articulate and fluent and just really cool.”

The bulk of the scenes were filmed over five weeks in a studio in Elephant and Castle and involve Abigail having to lie almost naked in bed with her blood-covered co-stars.

“There were some really surreal moments, “ she says, “but I have to say filming in a graveyard in the middle of the night and me and Fiona are half naked did make me think ‘what’s going on?’ “We had fake graves a bit away to film on including one for Nina and when we wrapped we all literally danced in Nina’s grave.”

Ahead of its premiere at South By Southwest in Austin, Abigail watched the finished film on her Leytonstone kitchen and cried the whole way through.

“When you are doing these things and they do seem so absurd you have to out all your trust in the fact it’s going to be OK and look good. It feels right in the moment but you hope it translates so when I saw it I was so happy that it did and it was beautiful.

She adds: “The physical side had its difficulties but we had a week of rehearsals which is a massive luxury. The emotional side was a lot more difficult for me, especially when you are with two actors who are so f***ing brilliant. Self doubt definitely kicked in.”

What about bearing all on camera?

“You have your own little niggles like ‘oh I hate my thighs’ or’ I hope they don’t see my belly as I’ve had a huge frickin’ lunch today’ but we kind of all had this moment where we decided we would rather people had a real naked person on screen with stretchmarks and scars and not the typically perfect Hollywood body. I actually really wanted to represent that.”

Abigail has followed it up with acting roles such as playing Ted Bundy's fiancée in an American TV movie but in between has had day jobs as a puppy sitter, in a doggy day centre, a sex toy shop, numerous department stores, a library, a pub and a call centre.

Now she hopes her award will help open some doors for her.

“I don’t think it will give me a hall pass to walk into any room or get any offer straight up, I do still think I will have to work my ass off. Now you have this accolade attached to your name there is a sense of expectation and I feel like I have to be good at my job all the time. 

"But I’m extremely grateful and aware of how lucky I am. I just want to keep working to be honest and not go back to the sex toy shop!"

Abigail says they plan to tour the film around local cinemas next year and it is due out on DVD for Valentine’s Day and is available to pre-order on Amazon now.