BEVERLY HILLS -- Naomie Harris has cast a spell on Hollywood.

Not only does the 29-year-old Londoner star opposite Jamie Foxx and Colin Farrell in Michael Mann's Miami Vice, but she's also on-screen as voodoo priestess Tia Dalma in Dead Man's Chest, the first of the back-to-back Pirates of the Caribbean sequels.

That puts Harris in the rarified position of seeing if she can dethrone herself at the box office, where Pirates has been perched since its debut.

Better yet for a relative newcomer still keen on demonstrating her range, Harris is about all the two films share in common -- aside from large budgets and larger ambitions.

Miami Vice is not a family film. Or even a film for adults who don't have iron-cast stomachs. Make no mistake -- the only things punctuating this new Vice's atmosphere of dread are outbursts of shocking, blood-splattered violence. It is, compared to its pastel-coloured, small-screen ancestor, a grittier, grimmer animal.

And it was one that, according to most reports, was hell to make. (Hurricanes and real-life shootings while on location in the Dominican Republic named among the primary culprits.)

Harris doesn't dispute it was a difficult shoot -- Mann is a notoriously exacting filmmaker -- but she credits Foxx and Farrell for making the $135-million US production palatable.

This was especially true of Foxx because -- while she's clothed for her scenes with Farrell's Crockett -- she strips naked for Foxx's Tubbs.

"Jamie's so sweet and supportive. He went out of his way to make me feel as comfortable as possible. It was intimidating you know -- he's this Oscar winner ... And then Colin is also very sweet. He just loves working as a team.

There's no ego there whatsoever. I've actually never someone with so little ego."

And what about their respective reputations as hard-partying bad boys?

"I am amazed now that I'm seeing it from the other end and being talked about in the press, how much rubbish is made up.

"In the London press, I'm supposed to be dating Jamie, actually, but I haven't seen him since we wrapped Miami Vice."

Alleged dalliances with Foxx aside, Harris has remained gratefully out of the limelight since her breakthrough role in the 2003 hit 28 Days Later.

"The (press in London) are way harder (than their U.S. counterparts). But with Pirates I was totally uninteresting to them. They were all about Johnny (Depp) and then it became all about Keira (Knightley) and her weight. I went by unnoticed.

"I really haven't gotten a taste of it yet. I just want to slip under the radar. (The press) is very good at building you up and then tearing you down."

Which isn't to suggest Harris' profile will diminish anytime soon. If nothing else, next May she will be seen in the third instalment of the Pirates trilogy.

As for Vice, Harris found Mann's take interesting: "What I found fascinating is that it's an exploration of the world of an undercover agent that's not glamourized."

What was the most surprising thing Harris -- who met with real-life undercover cops -- found researching her role as a vice detective?

"That they're just average, everyday people who make this commitment to this job. That's what I found the most shocking -- how ordinary they are. They come in all shapes and sizes."