Kaya Scodelario was "really p***** off" at being called an English rose.
The 35-year-old actress was born in the UK but is actually half Brazillian and felt that it was "really important" that the world was aware of her heritage so she pushed for a project that honoured her home country.
She told The Guardian newspaper: "I’d spent years asking my agents to find me a project in Brazil. It was really important to me that I show the world that that is part of my culture. I was described as an English rose once in an article and it really p***** me off, because I’m not!"
The film star then landed the part of Laura in the upcoming series 'Senna' - which is based on the life of life of late racing driver Ayrton Senna - and joked that she would've done it "for free" even though it turned out to be the "most exhausting job" she has ever done.
She added: "I just jumped at it. I said: ‘I’ll do whatever you want. I’ll do it for free. I will Duolingo my Portuguese to get it perfect.
"It was the most exhausting job I’ve ever done, even though I didn’t do anything physical, because I was trying to be very aware of the sounds my mouth was making, making sure that my accent was correct. It was scary."
The 'Don't Make Me Go' star - who has an eight-year-old son and a two-year-old daughter with her estranged husband Benjamin Walker - also noted that she never wanted motherhood to be an "excuse" for her not to land jobs, and feels "lucky" that she is able to balance it with her career.
She said: "I just never wanted it to be an excuse for producers not to hire me. I was 23 when I had my son.
"A lot of people said: ‘Well, that means you’re not going to work any more.’ I was lucky that I was in a position where I could say: ‘I’m going to fly my son out and I can breastfeed in the makeup chair.’ I bring them along for the ride. And so what if that means I sometimes get a bit of puke on my gown just as I’m going on a red carpet? I can just wet it off …”
