by Neil Norman

If Dustin Hoffman, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Chelsea Clinton are taking notice, perhaps the rest of us should too.

All three have sneaked into preview performances of Kenneth Lonergan's West End play This is Our Youth in order to catch sight of a bunch of young North American movie stars who simply cannot be ignored.

Oscar-winner Anna Paquin (the enchanting actress first noticed in 1993's The Piano), Hayden Christensen (Darth Vader in Star Wars II and III) and relative new boy Jake Gyllenhaal are taking their first baby steps onto the stage of the Garrick.

The Hollywood young guns profess they are nervous about their West End debuts, in a play about teenage life in the early Eighties.

"I feel good about where we're at right now," says Paquin, at 19 the youngest. "The play doesn't condescend to the age and the youth it deals with. We are the context."

Their London experience may be confined to the walk from their apartments in Covent Garden to the theatre in Charing Cross Road, but they have managed to pin down some of their favourite things en route.

"I would definitely credit Wagamama," says Hayden.

"That's the place where we learn all our lines."

"And Sheekey's," chimes in Jake. "We also like Teatro."

Being young and upandcoming, they can walk the streets of London without much fuss. This may change, however, when the next Star Wars film comes out and Christensen takes his place as the poster boy for many a teenage fan's bedroom wall.

The things they particularly like about London are somewhat surprising: the taxis and the Tube, both of which they consider models of efficiency. And they don't have a problem with the weather.

"I really like it that it isn't sunny," says Anna. "Being on stage is like the most exciting and vulnerable thing you can do as an actor," she says. "And being on a stage that is so old in a city that has such a tradition in theatre means that you have to be able to trust the people around you. You can't go on with your defences up."