Since her breakthrough performance as Lady Rose in Downton Abbey, Lily James has demonstrated her range by playing everything from Cinderella’s title role to Baby Driver’s female lead, and Rebecca’s iconic heroine to a young Meryl Streep in Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again.

But this week, she’s landed what might be her most surprising part to date: Pamela Anderson in a new limited series about the Baywatch star’s tempestuous relationship with rocker Tommy Lee. To whet your appetite, here are 10 things you might not know about the talented British actress.

1. She’s the granddaughter of American actress Helen Horton.

Horton, who passed away in 2007, is probably best known for providing the voice of “Mother,” the ship’s computer, in sci-fi classic Alien. She also took over from Vivien Leigh as Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire when the play’s original London run was completed and it went on a U.K. tour.

2. Her birth name is actually Lily Chloe Ninette Thomson.

She adopted the stage name Lily James in honor of her late father, actor and musician James Thomson, who died in 2008 following a battle with cancer.

3. She learned her trade at Tring Park School for the Performing Arts, located around an hour outside of London.

Fellow famous alumni include Dame Julie Andrews, Thandie Newton, Jane Seymour, and Daisy Ridley, so she's definitely in good company.

4. She’s a patron of the North London branch of the Motor Neurone Disease Association.

Her uncle Bruce lost his life to the cruel degenerative disease, so it’s understandable that she says it’s a cause “very close to my heart.”

5. She played a younger version of Meryl Streep’s character in Mamma Mia! Here I Go Again, and the two are actually distant relatives.

According to the Daily Mirror, the two actresses are ninth cousins, three times removed, and also have a very distant relation to President George W. Bush. Check out one of James's iconic performances from the 2018 musical:

6. She’s a massive Spice Girls fan

Check out a home video of young Lily singing the girlband’s hit “Stop” which The Graham Norton Show managed to track down...

7. She breaks out in a rash whenever she’s stressed or nervous.

“There was a period of time where I was doing auditions and I wasn’t ever quite sealing the deal," she told The Guardian earlier this year. "I would get so nervous I had to wear a polo neck because I’d come up in this huge rash on my neck. I get it when I’m excited, or turned on, or anything, it’s ridiculous."

8. She was verbally abused by online trolls when she joined the cast of Downton Abbey in 2012.

"I got loads of nasty tweets when I started on the show," James told Wonderland magazine at the time, as the Daily Express reports. "I got, 'She's not even pretty, she's just nasty'. It was kind of taking over my life for a while."

James went on to suggest that the reaction might have been caused because her character, Lady Rose, was introduced following the death of a fan favorite played by Jessica Brown Findlay. "I think everyone liked Lady Sybil so much," she added.

9. She went backpacking to keep her feet on the ground after completing her grueling promo tour for Cinderella.

“I remember coming back from that tour, walking down the street to go to the shops, and realizing I hadn’t brought my wallet with me," she told NET-A-PORTER.com’s The EDIT, the Evening Standard reports. “Everything had been managed by other people for so long I forgot how to do it myself. I ended up backpacking with a friend in south-east Asia, staying in huts that were £2 ($2.70) a night, to regain my sanity."

10. And finally, she can really sell a double entendre.

The evidence: James and her Cinderella co-star Richard Madden reading out suggestive quotes from The Great British Baking Show at Graham Norton’s behest.

Warning: some of these lines do sound quite risqué.

Do you have a favorite Lily James moment or role?