Born in Topanga, California, in 1982, Beau was spotted in a local shopping mall at the age of 13 by a scout for the model agency Elite (the agency that also propelled Cindy Crawford, Heidi Klum and numerous others to superstardom). But being a down-to-earth, hippie kind of girl, Beau laughed and said no thanks. Later, her father sensibly made her reconsider. She soon became the face of GUESS? Jeans (a role that had already made Anna Nicole Smith famous) and travelled the world, her face plastered on billboards all over the place. Now after 10 years inside the industry, she’s no fan of the way it works. ‘It’s all based on skin-deep bullshit, to be brutally honest,’ she says. And her advice for anyone who launches a modelling career? ‘Run for the hills!’

Like many successful models, she made the move into acting, landing a part in the brilliantly dark TV comedy Entourage in 2004. Playing a vegan hippie (complete with a nude scene for which she was voted ‘Best Buns’ in MrSkin.com’s annual Anatomy Awards…), she captured the avid attention of several producers, landing a major part in the gruesome 2006 horror film Paradise Lost. The part saw her character drugged while backpacking in Brazil, then chased, kidnapped and ultimately tortured horribly by locals intent on selling her internal organs (it didn’t do much for the Brazilian Tourist Board by all accounts). Beau’s character was on the receiving end of one of the goriest, nastiest scenes in the film – a scene that took 12 hours to shoot. This time was spent immobile and strapped to a hospital bed, as the huge number of prosthetics involved (lots of bloody body parts, mostly) required her to lie still between takes. ‘I had to use a bedpan!' she says. ‘I had prosthetics on, so I had to eat there, piss there… everything.’ Sexy.

Her next film saw her treated a little better. Taking the role of Captain Frankie Raye in blockbuster Fantasic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer, she got her first experience of being on a huge film set. ‘To be picked up, flown first class, taken to a gorgeous hotel and then getting to work with a great cast for four-and-a-half months in a city I had never been to was incredible.’ Her character falls for cocky berk The Human Torch, something she denies would ever happen in reality. ‘In real life, I’d punch a guy like that,’ she says. ‘I like understated men with just a little edge to them.’ Who aren’t on fire, pressumably. Fans are hoping to see her with an even bigger role in the planned third film of the series. In the comics, Frankie Raye eventually becomes ‘Nova’, a fire-flinging heroine with powers similar to The Human Torch, and Beau is hopeful to play the red-hot hero onscreen. Producers had better watch out: she’s pretty determined. ‘Don’t piss me off because I will shoot fire!’

Action-heroics aside, she’s also going to be starring in two new films this year – romcom Made Of Honor and taut drama Ivory. In the meantime, she’ll be doing her favourite thing in the world: running up and down the beach with her dog. Bless…