Jassy Radlett Jemima Rooper In the film, Jassy represents a composite of several characters in the books, primarily Linda's dreamy younger sister Jassy. Says actress Jemima Rooper: "Jassy is the middle sibling, and she lives very much in her own little bubble. She thinks she wants to run away and is saving up all of her money to do that. She's 14 at the start of the story, but she's actually trying to be older than she really is." The role of Jassy has given the young actress the opportunity to ply her craft alongside England's best. "When I went to the first read-through and there were all these wonderful actors there -- Alan Bates, Sheila Gish, Anthony Andrews -- it's such a great cast, and I sat there and thought, 'Wow!' It's a great opportunity for me." By the tender age of 8, Rooper had already shown remarkable determination to become an actress. "I got hold of the Yellow Pages and found a children's agent and rang them up. I think after that Mum saw that I was pretty determined, and she was fine about it." Born in London, Rooper landed her first role when she was 13, playing George in a television production of The Famous Five. Now 18, she has also appeared in ExxonMobil Masterpiece Theatre's Wives and Daughters as Lizzie Goodenough and in The Railway Children as Bobbie. In Mitford's words: Jassy Radlett Jassy only cared about money because she was saving up to run away -- she carried her post office book about with her everywhere, and always knew to a farthing what she had got. This was then translated by a miracle of determination, as Jassy was very bad at sums, into so many days in a bed sitting room. "How are you getting on Jassy?" "My fare to London and a month and two days and an hour and a flat in a bed-sitter, with basin and breakfast." Where the other meals would come from was left to the imagination. Jassy studied advertisements of bed-sitters in The Times every morning. The cheapest she had found so far was in Clapham. So eager was she for the cash that would transform her dream into reality, that one could be certain of picking up a few bargains round about Christmas and her birthday. Jassy at this time was aged eight." The Pursuit of Love, Chapter 3