TYNESIDE actress Andrea Riseborough, currently taking the film world by storm in her starring role as Wallis Simpson, could soon be rivalled by her younger sister Laura Riseborough.

Andrea, from Whitley Bay, North Tyneside, is the star of the film W.E., directed by pop star Madonna, whom she now counts as one of her friends.

This week she was on the red carpet in London as the film received its premiere, but she recently returned to Tyneside to see her sister Laura performing on stage in Newcastle.

Laura Riseborough was starring in The Glass Slipper at Northern Stage and Andrea caught her final performance.

She said: “I thought I would surprise Laura and managed to get there for her final show.

“It was a flying visit, but I thoroughly enjoyed the performance.

“It’s always lovely to come home and while I don’t get home perhaps as much as I would like I do make the most of it when I get there and try and catch up with family.

“It was wonderful to be back and Laura was amazing in the play. Our parents are very proud and they have always been encouraging.”

Andrea, 30, explained she could not resist being moved by Madonna’s enthusiasm for the project.

At the London premiere on Wednesday night she said: “Madonna was so passionate and so clear about the story she wanted to tell, and was well equipped and prepared to tell it, that after that point, I didn’t need to think twice.”

Madonna has said as soon as the Geordie actress entered the audition room she knew she was perfect to play the woman who stole the future king’s heart – a romance which eventually led to his abdication.

“Casting Wallis Simpson was almost impossible,” said the pop star.

“She was very particular and I was looking for a certain quality – something fragile, something androgynous and yet still feminine in a really old-fashioned way. Plus this nervous, birdlike energy.

“When Andrea walked into the room I knew immediately she was the one.”

Andrea was nominated for a Bafta Award for her TV portrayal of Margaret Thatcher in a 2008 BBC drama, Margaret Thatcher: The Long Road to Finchley.

W.E. opens in cinemas on January 20.