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It's perhaps not the most glamorous or dignified entrance we've ever seen, but Rachel Griffiths' first scene in Channel 4's Six Feet Under sees her squashed into a caretaker's cupboard at LA airport, enjoying some highly vigorous and thoroughly casual sex with a stranger she just met on a flight. Like, really noisy, pants-down, punch-the-walls, stuff-falling-off-shelves sex.

Which isn't, granted, how you may recall the 28 year old Melbourne actress from her previous stand-out roles as wheelchair-bound Rhonda in Muriel's Wedding or even her oscar-nominated portrayal of Hilary DuPre in 1998's Hilary And Jackie, but then, this is a woman who has no problem adapting to any scenario. That much is certainly evidenced by her childhood: the youngest of three children, her father left home when she was aged just 11, to set up home with an 18 year old. She hasn't seen him since, and was subsequently raised by her mother.

As Brenda Chenowith in Six Feet Under, Rachel's family trials and tribulations are no more straightforward. She plays the daughter of two psychiatrists, struggling to find space for her own life whilst dealing with an over-dependent and unpredictably violent schizophrenic brother. Small wonder, then, that she takes to the odd bout of light relief in that airport closet, although what starts out as a 'no-strings' encounter with Nate Fisher (played by Peter Krause) soon develops into something much bigger.

"It was so funny filming that," grins Rachel naughtily. "I'd only known Peter for a couple of days, and suddenly we were banging away in this tiny room!" Over the series' 13 episodes, we see this unlikely couple falling slowly, and ever so cautiously in love. The caution is key, as Rachel explains: "I think Brenda and Nate are similar people - well into their thirties, and still clinging to that little raft-boat of independence. They're both scared witless, really, and that fear is very intellectualised for Brenda. She has all these theories about how you should be independent and all that, when really she's just terrified of sharing a raft with another person and being vulnerable to them rocking the boat."

And of course Nate is the 'lost-soul' type, apparently undependable and selfish, the 'no-hoper' who somehow always seems to get the girl, but Rachel is adamant that this is no simple 'I fell for a bastard' exercise: "I think that people are attracted to what they have a capacity to cope with at any time," she explains. "Like, if you have a capacity to be stable, then you go for someone stable. If you're genuinely looking to settle down and have kids, then you won't be attracted to the asshole."

The demands of a TV series mean that Rachel now shares her time between America and Australia. "I'm based in Sydney now, but I call myself a demi-pat - six months in LA, then six months in Sydney. My connection with my friends, family and country is very important. And the studio here understand that - they don't want to see me burn out and end up strung out on barbiturates in some Hollywood dive a few years down the line," she laughs.

Rachel has that engaging Australian directness which - in the heart of Hollywood - comes as a real breath of fresh air, but which also seems a little at odds with the town where so much is fake. "Oh LA's not that bad," she smiles. "You have to find it though. Spend enough time here and you find all these fantastic places. I just discovered this wonderful manicure salon with a cocktail bar on the premises. It's called The Beauty Bar in Hollywood."

So, no worries with the apple martinis, then, but what about the whole LA health and fitness religion? "Ah yes," she winces, "I'm totally Yoga addicted - I'm sorry to be joining the bandwagon so late, but yes, I'm a convert. And you live so healthily in LA - if anything it helps me to detox from all the beer I drink in Australia. Here I don't drink - at home it's always 'Beer O'Clock'. I come back to LA two stone heavier and just get back into my Yoga."

And of course, there could hardly be a better time to be Australian in the showbiz industry. What with Kylie, Russel and Nicole all making their mark, Rachel's a paid-up member of the latest Hollywood pack. Or at least she should be… "You know what?" she shrugs, "At the Golden Globes I was totally out of the loop! Nicole took her little Aussie entourage and left me out! And I kept hearing oh yes, the aussies went to this party, then they went to that one, and Russell was there… And I was like 'Oh.'"

She's not complaining though - at the same awards, she took away a gong for Best Supporting Actress in Six Feet Under. You can see why Rachel has become so fond of playing Brenda: "When I first saw the scripts I realised there was this fantastic tension between the innate humanity and the kind of wild side to this character," she explains. "Her sexuality, her astute intelligence - it was all so compelling. I like the idea that your history emerges from the dark depths in this show. It's kind of like meeting someone in real life - you might know them for two years and then suddenly this shadow appears and you learn the real secrets."

Speaking of secrets, Rachel credits an unwitting Rob Lowe with providing her with her first-ever orgasm. And he wasn't even present… "Oh God," she blushes, "I was 13 at the time, and it was my first wet dream. I actually met him at this party recently, and I so wanted to call out 'If only you knew what we've done together'!" At which point, you start to wonder how much of Rachel is Brenda and vice-versa. Both are spirited, both are effortlessly sexy, both startlingly intelligent. "I don't know that I've brought anything unexpected to the role," frowns Rachel. "If anything, it seems like the writers knew me, and kept throwing me things that innately made sense to me. I kept asking them 'Have you been speaking with my mother?'"

For now, she's contracted to Six Feet Under for five years, and is already filming the third series in LA. And she's loving it. "I've come to appreciate the gifts of having a whole TV series to tell a story in," she explains. "We can keep peeling back the onion, which is something I hadn't really appreciated before doing this. And it's such a Pandora's Box that you delve into. It's wonderful."

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