"When the Austin Powers people approached me to do something for the movie I thought they wanted me to just do a song,” explains Beyoncé Knowles. “When they said they wanted me to play the part of Foxy Cleopatra I was really surprised. I was also kinda nervous.”

She might well be nervous. Although the singer had acted previously in some musical movie projects, including a hip-hop version of the opera Carmen, the famously clean-living and Christian Knowles might have balked at appearing in one of Mike Myers’ famously risqué spy spoofs.

“I thought about it,” she muses, “and I watched both the previous movies after I talked to Mike, because I’d never seen them before. I’ve been so concentrating on music for the past number of years that I really haven’t watched a lot of movies, but I was OK with it and the chemistry between me and Mike was just great. He was a lot of fun and he really opened my mind to different things like comedy that I wasn’t really familiar with before. I started to get his jokes and I was like , ‘Oh, Okay!, that’s a joke’. And it was very different to do a movie for me; it was a lot of fun on the set with people just jokin’ around. And I did a lot of things with Michael Caine who was a real gentleman as well as being a very funny guy.”

Can she tell us a little about her character?

“Foxy Cleopatra is based on the movie characters Foxy Brown and Cleopatra Jones who were featured in crime caper movies in the ’70s. And I watched those movies to research the part. My character is a secret agent from that era who helps Austin out. She’s saucy and sassy and she’s also very funny, at least I hope she is. I was nervous about my first big movie being a comedy role but I’m pleased with the way it turned out. I liked doing it because it was really different to being in Destiny’s Child, which I also love but it’s good to do different things.”

It’s perhaps not surprising that Beyoncé Knowles hasn’t seen as many movies as most young American women her age, since the 21-year-old has been planning a music career since she was a little girl.

“I always loved music and I grew up on singers like Anita Baker and bands like The Jackson Five, and also the Motown artists like the Temptations. I was never into the kind of music that most kids my age would listen to because I would play my dad’s records instead. My dad and my mom introduced me to a lot of music and encouraged me to listen to how they were crafted and arranged. And in a way I wish they’d introduced me to more stuff. But I remember when I first heard ‘Visions Of Love’ by Mariah Carey when I was about 18 years old I could understand the runs and I thought, ‘Yeah, that’s what I want to do’.’’

As well as vocal and dance duties with Destiny’s Child, currently the best-selling female vocal act in the USA, Beyoncé also has taken on writing and production tasks. It’s a lot of pressure for a woman still in her early twenties. Indeed after this interview took place, it was acknowledged that she had been suffering from fatigue, though tabloid rumours of anything more serious were dismissed as sensationalist fancy.

“Yeah, sometimes I wonder how I got here,” she admits somewhat ruefully. “I have a lot of pressures and responsibilities and I wear a lot of hats… And sometimes I wish I could get away to a desert island and escape for two months. But my spirituality is a great help and that and my love for the stage and everything I do keeps me going. Sometimes I get tired but whenever I really need it I’ll hear something from someone or meet a special person who’ll help me appreciate what I do. Just recently I won the Songwriter of the Year award in the US and stuff like that makes me think, 'Yeah, that's why I do it'."

As the leader of the band does she also feel she’s got to look after Michelle and Kelly?

“Well we all look after each other but yeah, I like to listen and to give people advice. Sometimes I wish I could listen to my own advice though (laughs).

It sounds like you’ve had to make some sacrifices in your personal life in order to concentrate on your career.

“Well I’m a really normal person and it doesn’t take a great deal to please me, you know. I’ve got pretty simple tastes. Like, recently we were in New York and we went to get our nails done at a salon, and we sat outside on the street on this beautiful day and you know that was one of the best days of my life. Because a couple of people came by and said ‘Hi’ and we weren’t hiding or nothing but nobody asked for autographs… Sometimes I just wanna be treated like everyone else, all the time actually (laughs). I hate being surrounded by security guards and all that stuff. Sometimes I just wish I could go to the grocery store by myself or go to the mall or drive my own car. But most times I can’t. I wish that, like, twice a month I could just do normal things.”

We could be forgiven for thinking that it’s quite a lonely life.

“Well, I have Kelly who’s been my best friend since I was little, and Michelle’s now a best friend also. And my cousin travels with us as an assistant and we’re close. Plus my sister’s just turned 16, she’s five years younger than me and it’s better now because we can swap clothes and go out together and that’s really beautiful to me. Because for years a little sister can hang around and get on your nerves but I love that she’s here now.”

How about boyfriends? Most young women her age would be dating by now. Is that difficult for her?

“Yes it is,” she says emphatically. “Because it’s hard to find somebody, and then if I do find somebody I can’t do anything! I mean, I can’t go to a club or go to the park. People ask us all sorts of personal things… I mean, I know I’m going to have to start going out with somebody sometime!”