keira knightley play the Latest Role of Michelle Pfeiffer

"It's interesting," she smiles, when we meet very briefly in London as she promotes her new film Cheri.

"It's not dull. They've all had this incredible youthful energy. It sort of infuses you, and it's very contagious. I've also been lucky in that they've always been really great guys."

The latest "great guy" is Rupert Friend, current squeeze of Keira Knightley , who plays her love interest in Cheri, a tale about a retired courtesan who embarks on an affair with a man half her age.

The film is based on the famous book by French author Collette, and reunites Pfeiffer with her Dangerous Liaisons director Stephen Frears.

It's the latest film in Pfeiffer's Hollywood comeback, after she took a few years out to spend time with her family. Since she came back, she has already appeared in Hairspray and Stardust.

"I think that what happened was I was missing work," she explains about her decision to return to the big screen.

"Then the scripts were there, and I think it just happened. But then it's probably more about your mindset than the fact that you want to go back to work, and things just become more appealing to you."

Of course, Michelle's walked right back into the argument about women and age with this film.

The subject matter's meant every journalist under the sun has already been asking her about playing older characters, and how hard she finds it getting decent scripts thrown her way.

Inevitably, we find our conversation heading in that direction too.

"It's EVERY interview," she laughs. "But I expected that. First of all, I've been getting that since I was 35. That was sort of the magic number."

So is that old song true? Is it really sometimes hard to be a woman? Especially when it comes to finding good roles?

She nods her head. "Yeah, I mean 35-year-old men don't get it. It's ridiculous, can you imagine asking Tom Cruise that?"