Kaya Scodelario was annoyed when described as an English rose

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."