It seems that artist, radio producer and actor Mary Duffy can tackle almost any project. Just don't ask her to pick out her latest co-star, Nicole Kidman, writes Sorcha Hamilton

'It always shocks me when someone asks me to leave a restaurant," says artist Mary Duffy. "It's because I use my feet to eat." Duffy was born without arms, one of thousands affected by thalidomide, a drug taken by pregnant women to ease morning sickness. We're sitting in the garden of her house in Newcastle, Co Wicklow and every now and then she sips water from a wine glass, which she brings to her lips with her left foot in a casual, relaxed manner. "It took me a long time to be able to say no - I won't leave your restaurant."

Duffy has just starred in a new film, Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus, which stars Nicole Kidman as the controversial 1950s photographer. Duffy plays the role of Althea, a friend to Robert Downey jnr's character Lionel, who is covered in fur. "I sent a showreel to the director," says Duffy, "but I didn't really expect to get picked." A clip from the showreel - which can be seen on YouTube - shows Duffy making a cup of tea: getting a mug out of the cupboard, filling the kettle, pouring the water into the teapot, and finally sitting down to drink the tea - all with her left foot.

The showreel echoes a scene in Fur when Diane Arbus becomes increasingly curious about a woman she has watched in an apartment window, who, to her surprise, one day lifts a cup of tea and sips with her foot. When Arbus decides she wants to take her photograph, she crosses paths with Lionel and begins a somewhat strange love affair, radically changing her direction in life.

Duffy was fond of director Steven Shainberg, whose most famous film, Secretary, was an offbeat tale of love and sadomasochism. She also admired his determination to use a disabled woman in the role of Althea in Fur: "It's a tough call getting someone with acting experience and no arms," she says. It is important that disabled people play disabled characters in films, Duffy believes, otherwise it's like "blacking up".

"I remember being very critical of the character when I read the script - how retiring and mousy and unadventurous she seemed to be, the way she set up everything to be safe - then I realised I'm just like that myself. I like my life the way it is . . . I have set it up the way I like it and moving to New York made me realise how comfortable and unadventurous I have become."

Unadventurous is the last word that comes to mind when speaking to Duffy, however, who recently spent two weeks walking the Camino de Santiago in Spain, has travelled extensively and drives a car. She has studied art, has a masters in equality studies and was awarded an honorary doctorate of law in 2003. So far, her career has involved radio production, teaching, numerous photography and mixed-media projects, and now painting.

After a long, difficult process in sorting a work visa - initially the authorities wouldn't issue her a visa because she couldn't give them fingerprints - Duffy spent seven weeks in New York on the shoot of Fur. Her first encounter with Kidman was somewhat awkward: "They brought me around the set on the first day, it was all hectic - I see this woman having her hair done and she starts chatting to me about the flight from Ireland, but nobody ever tells me who she is - I must be the only person in the world who needs to be told who Nicole Kidman is."

Duffy also worked with Downey jnr, who she was very fond of. "I felt ridiculous in the rig out - the clothes and the wig," she says, "I looked more like Nicole Kidman's grandmother than a love rival." Being in front of the camera for hours was no big deal for Duffy, however, who has worked as a performance artist. "As a disabled person I get stared at a lot," she says. "There's different types of staring, some people want to engage, others are open-mouthed - there's no interaction and that's hard." Duffy has had exhibitions in San Francisco, Tokyo, London and numerous galleries around the world. Much of her work, including a project called Pride and Prejudice, has examined disability and identity. Her most famous piece - Stories of a Body - involved reciting a monologue on stage, naked, challenging the audience to question attitudes to her body and the nature of their voyeurism. "It was nerve-wracking and also empowering," she says.

"When I started taking photographs in the 1980s, late 1970s there were no images of disabled people - it sounds strange now - and no images of disabled people taken by themselves, or ourselves, so that was a whole revolutionary thing," she says. While Duffy admires some elements of Arbus's work, including the question of voyeurism, she believes it belongs to a particular time: "In the 21st century it's hard to look back at it now being ground-breaking.

'WHEN I WAS BORN it was a great tragedy," she says. Her parents were told she would never learn to walk properly and doctors tried to discourage her from using her feet, which she has done from a young age, and instead gave her artificial arms.

"These artificial arms came out of the hot press every morning, they had to be heated up. Sometimes they caused terrible welts on my body . . . It was like this big conspiracy of denial, everyone knew they weren't real, kids use to shout after me 'dolly arm'." Her parents struggled to get her into a local school, as they were adamant that she wouldn't be sent to a hospital or institution. "If I had been sent away it would have all been different," she says.

Duffy has been approached about another film role but is keen to focus on her painting for the moment. She is preparing for her first solo painting exhibition in Galway this week, which will feature seascapes, landscapes and some self-portraits. Although she loves the challenge, painting can be physically hard and she often gets neck and knee aches. "I'm a very - pardon the pun - hands-on kind of person. If I had hands I'd be the type of person to build things and make things - it's very frustrating sometimes."

• Mary Duffy's solo exhibition will open in the Bold Gallery, Galway on June 7, www.maryduffy.ie. Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus is out on DVD this month