Sienna Miller has said what many people have suspected - that she is only famous because of her 'soap opera' relationship with Jude Law.

Asked why she is so widely recognised, the actress, 25, admitted: "I don't know why, particularly," before bravely conceding it certainly wasn't for any of her films.

Miller, speaking before a screening of her latest movie Factory Girl at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, said: "It's this national obsession with what happens next and if your soap opera gets particularly juicy and particularly scandalous then it's more interesting - and somehow I always end up being scandalous even though I don't mean to.

"I just find it. If it's there, if there's something scandalous lurking, I'll accidentally walk into it. I guess the relationship I've been in has been a particularly good soap opera."

Miller admits she faces an uphill struggle trying to persuade the cinema and theatregoing public to take her seriously.

"Everything just happened in the wrong order. I did my first proper film where I met Jude and we got together, and then the whole celebrity thing happened before I had any films out.

And before now I've only had three films out - and they haven't been very successful - so there's nothing to overshadow the celebrity side of things," she said.

Factory Girl, in which she plays Andy Warhol's muse and protege Edie Sedgwick, could provide a turning point.

Miller said: "Hopefully with all the films I've made this year it'll take the focus off what I'm wearing or my relationship."

Not that she regrets the time she spent with Law.

"I loved working with Jude," she says of making Alfie. "He's an incredible actor. I actually liked that film, but maybe it was because I was falling in love and having a magical time making it."