The actress, who plays the matriarch of a dangerous North Dakota clan in the new thriller, also thanks her 65-year-old co-star for helping her get to grips with her onset firearms.

• Nov 7, 2020

AceShowbiz - British actress Lesley Manville was determined to "get down and dirty" and pull off her own stunts in new Western "Let Him Go" after watching co-star Kevin Costner in action.

The "Phantom Thread" star plays the tough matriarch of a dangerous North Dakota clan living off the grid in the new thriller, and Manville admits she was eager to "flex muscles" she had never used before - and it's all thanks to 65-year-old Costner, who also helped her get to grips with her onset firearms.

"I thought, 'Yeah, I'm going to get down and dirty as well! If he can do it, I'm going to do it, too,' having done none of it ever," Manville laughed to The Associated Press.

"I suddenly decided I was going to be the stunt girl. I was going to throw myself around. I was going to be handling that gun having never picked a gun up in my life. But I did have Kevin helping me. And I did it. And he said I did it really, really well and that he was actually quite scared."

Manville was so adept at the stunt work, filmmaker Thomas Bezucha didn't feel the need to call in her double.

"I got to flex muscles that I haven't really flexed before," she smiled. "It was just thrilling."

"Let Him Go", based on the 2013 novel of the same name by Larry Watson, also stars Diane Lane as Costner's wife, and Manville was particularly excited to share the screen with the pair.

"It was a no-brainer," she said of taking on the role, although she was initially a little nervous about working alongside the Hollywood veterans.

"They're great actors, but they're also movie stars and that can be intimidating," Manville shared. "Although I say very, very quickly on the heels of that statement that neither of them play that role. They don't do the movie star thing. They are workers like me."