 At the age of seven she modelled clothes for Kays catalogue and she went on to appear in commercials for Sunpat peanut butter, then for gas, paint, soup and the children's toy My Little Pony.By the age of eight she was acting on stage at London's National Theatre in "Neap Tide", a controversial play about lesbianism and women's oppression.Speed has commented "Mum wasn't keen for me to be a child actress — she thought I'd be even more precocious than I already was… I worked constantly and I loved it."