Rebecca Ferguson made it clear that she wouldn't be able to do a Birmingham accent when she had talks about joining the Peaky Blinders movie.
In Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man, the Mission: Impossible actress plays a mysterious new character named Kaulo, an acquaintance of Cillian Murphy's Birmingham crime boss Tommy Shelby.
While the Swedish star is used to doing standard English and American accents, she told the Oscar-winning actor that a regional Birmingham accent was out of the question when he suggested her role for the Kaulo.
"Basically, I said, 'I can't do a f**king Brummie (accent), mate, so what are we going to do about this?'" she jokingly recalled in an interview with Empire magazine. "'That ain't happening. Could she be Swedish?'"
Ferguson's accent declaration wasn't a deal-breaker, and she joined the cast alongside returning Peaky Blinders star Sophie Rundle and Stephen Graham, as well as new additions Tim Roth and Barry Keoghan.
The House of Dynamite star also admitted she tried not to think too much about the fact that she was stepping into the world of a beloved TV show, which ran between 2013 and 2022.
"I try and stay away from thinking about all the people who (love it), because that's just going to freak me out," she said. "It's enough to know that once Cillian is on a horse, the paparazzi are taking pictures. You understand how big it is."
In a separate interview with the magazine, Keoghan - who leads a new generation of the Peaky Blinders gang - revealed that he'd almost joined the series several times over the years but "the schedules never worked". So he was particularly keen when his Dunkirk co-star Murphy called him up about a part in the movie.
"I said, 'Of course, bro. At the drop of a hat.' I was like, 'Freakin' yeah. Anything to work with yourself again,'" he recalled.
The Immortal Man will be released in theatres and on Netflix in March 2026.
