Eleanor Tomlinson says she auditioned for a role in Peaky Blinders, but was not successful because she could not do a Birmingham accent.
The 27-year-old is best known for playing Demelza in the BBC series Poldark, which was based on the books of the same name penned by Winston Graham.
She told The Jonathan Ross Show: “I auditioned for Peaky Blinders when it was first starting, but they said ‘You need to be able to do a Birmingham accent’. I tried and they said ‘You just can’t do it can you love’. I was like ‘Oh okay’.”
Gangster drama Peaky Blinders stars Cillian Murphy as Tommy Shelby in the gritty series about a Birmingham crime family.
The fifth and final series of Poldark, which saw Tomlinson star alongside Aidan Turner, aired this year.
Asked about a reunion with the cast, she told the ITV show: “The whole cast and crew on it were amazing, I will miss it a lot, but it’s time to do something else.
“It’s exciting. It’s opened lots of doors. It will always have a very fond place in my heart. Aidan is always off gallivanting around the world, so I haven’t caught up with him in ages but we are good mates.
“You never say never… I kept the corset from Poldark, just because it was so painful and I wanted to never have to wear it again but to own it and think ‘I got through it, I wore it every day’.
“Now I can eat a burger and chips and be able to enjoy as opposed to not be able to finish it. I wouldn’t say no (to a reunion] we’ll see. It would be lovely to do a reunion, it would be amazing.”
She will next be seen on screen in the BBC adaptation of HG Wells’s famous sci-fi novel, The War Of The Worlds.
She told Ross: “It’s the same production that make Poldark so I’d been working with them for a few years. I just read the script and absolutely loved it. I loved this character. It was a high action bit of fun. Something different. An amazing cast…
“The costume was amazing. It was pretty heavy though. There was a scene set in the sea, it was actually filmed in a big swimming pool. I had to dive in and I had to swim to save this child.
“That costume when it gets wet, let me tell you, I was like a lead balloon and I just went completely down and ended up sitting on the bottom of the pool just waiting for this diving team to come and rescue me and thinking ‘Oh gosh I think I might die here, this is quite strange’. Then sure enough, there they were.”
The series sees Tomlinson and Spall playing a couple who start a life together against the backdrop of an alien invasion.
The Jonathan Ross Show airs on Saturday at 10pm on ITV.