At times those skills were really hard to do because not only was I having to contend with the camera, but I was having to learn these new skills and the ball was always kind of doing what you didn't want it to do. So it got a little bit frustrating at times but we got there.

I was worried people would laugh at me when I started to talk the language, but they were just pleasantly surprised that I could. The sense of humour here is great - once I could have a giggle, I settled down.

That's what I like about acting. When you're preparing for a role, you do your research, and the bonus is you get to learn these skills. Now, it's on to whatever the next thing is I have to learn.

In London there was an article about all these girls bending it like Beckham, and in India there's this big wave of girls playing football. Wow! I can't believe a movie's done this!

And of course in America you've got American football and baseball and all those other ball games, soccer has become a little niche that the women have kind of filled.

But I think it's also hard to get into soccer here. I think purely on a time level on television as well because of the ad breaks. It's something to do with that as well. You can't show a complete soccer match here. Which I kind of find a bit of an odd thing.

In terms of the frustration of my character, I suppose any teenager has probably gone through that, in terms of telling their parents, I want to do one thing, and their parent says no. I think parents sometimes forget that they were children.