If you're looking for the next big Hollywood starlet, stop right there. We've found her.
Poppy Drayton has played Madeleine Allsopp in Downton Abbey, a badass elfin princess in MTV's The Shannara Chronicles and now she's wearing a super-tight super-shiny fin (it's true – we asked her) for the upcoming live-action version of A Little Mermaid.
heat caught up with Poppy and had such a delightful chat with her that she's secured a place on our speed dial for when we need some lols.
"There's a lovely quote that says something like, 'Courage is not the absence of – ' oh, I'm going to absolutely blitz it, hold on," she laughs when asked about her character, elfin princess Amberle, in the magical fantasy drama The Shannara Chronicles.
"'Courage is not the absence of fear, courage is feeling the fear and doing it anyway.' There!"
And this is coming from the woman who was "eerily calm" when she did a skydive in New Zealand, so she gets all of the brave brownie points.
But Poppy insists that although she shares the daredevil streak with her elfin alter ego, it's Amberle's journey from sheltered young girl to strong warrior that makes the character really special.
"It's fantastic to see that arc that she goes on and eventually the character that she becomes is almost worlds away from where she started," she explains.
"I think what's nice about that journey is that you see her vulnerabilities and she's not always this super badass woman."
The actress, who has become a fantasy show pro between playing elfin royalty, is set to become the most famous mermaid of all time (sorry, Splash), and has revealed that it's actually a LOT harder to play magical characters than people would think. Especially when it came to wearing a ginormous, heavy, prosthetic tail in A Little Mermaid, which is scheduled for release in 2017.
"It's quite an ordeal just to get into it," Poppy told us.
"You had to cover yourself and your legs in coconut oil just so that you were slippery enough to squeeze into it, because it's skin tight, and it's like a really, really, really thick silicon wet suit essentially."
And according to Poppy, things got pretty hilarious on set when none of the mermaids were able to stand properly while underwater.
But even if getting into costume is a bit of a furore, and flipping around in a massive fake tail is even harder than getting Alex Mytton to stay faithful, there are apparently some very interesting hunk-shaped perks of the job when it comes to wearing a mermaid fin.
"I had to be carried by this lovely, strapping lad who we nicknamed Beefcake because he was huge. He was my transport while I was in the tail because obviously when you're in [it], it's very difficult to move around," Poppy admitted.
"I'd often just stay in the tail just so I didn't have to get out because it's just easier."
She says easier, we say Beefcake must have had some tasty biceps.
And how do you master moving around in a giant tail when you are but a mere human? You take your fin down to your local pool and practise, of course.
"My local pools were amazing and really accommodating," Poppy laughs.
"They let me practise with this fin for a while, but they kept having to call over on the radio and be like, 'Can you clear lane three for the mermaid!' and I was just like, 'Sorry!'"
But, we hear you asking, is there a place where the real mermaids hang out? Can we go there and pretend to be one? And will we meet an underwater BFF to rival Flounder?
Actually, the answer to all of the above is YES. Poppy and the Little Mermaid gang headed over to a real-life mermaid park called Weeki Wachee in Florida, USA (obvs), which is a natural spring full of underwater sea creatures. And it sounds way nicer than going for a dip in Southend.
"There are all these fish under the water, and turtles and manatees, it was so cool!" Poppy tells us excitedly, igniting not a single spark of jealousy in us. At all.
"There was a turtle that followed me for ages while we were doing all of this underwater filming, because he just wanted to know what was going on, so he was just hanging out by my tail."
OK, that's it. We're not hiding it anymore. We are insanely jealous of you, Poppy. We want to swim around with a tail, have a turtle bestie and get carried around by Beefcake.
Laters, guys - we're off to Weeki Wachee.
Season One of The Shannara Chronicles is available on 3-disc DVD and Blu-Ray now