Little Wing stars Kelly Reilly and Brian Cox bonded over their 'beastly TV characters'

And, speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com ahead of the film's debut, Reilly opened up about acting opposite Cox.

"As actors, you have a fantasy list of who you'd love to work with, and Brian's definitely been on that list for me," she said. "I mean, I actually worked with him on a film ages ago - but again, we only had a couple of scenes together."

She added: "I'm such a huge admirer of him for as long as I can remember... [And] we met on set again and he said, 'Oh, hi Kelly,' in his lovely Scottish accent. And I'm like, 'Oh, hi Brian.' And, you know, we play these kind of beastly characters on these TV shows. But in reality we're both kind of pretty soft.

"So, it was quite fun to actually be able to sort of sink into ourselves a little bit more for this!”

The film features The Florida Project and Cocaine Bear star Brooklynn Prince as Kaitlyn, a 13-year-old girl who is dragged into the world of pigeon racing following her parents' divorce when she steals a prize bird from enthusiast Jaan (Cox) to stave off the sale of her house.

Reilly plays Kaitlyn's mother Maddie in the film, and was full of praise for the manner in which it went about dealing with the subject of children's mental health.

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"I think it's really important," she said. "I mean, it's really trying to connect with a younger audience. So you've got to connect with them in a way that's incredibly truthful, not condescending in any way.

"Playing this woman, this girl's mother, it's like: how do you suddenly connect with this young woman who has real emotions, who goes from a small child to suddenly there's a young woman who has real trauma and issues and is really struggling? And how does someone who is the closest to her connect with her?"

She continued: "And it's amazing within families, just because we're family and we love each other, it doesn't necessarily mean we can understand each other or know how to show up for each other in that way. So I think we can all relate to something like that.

"Just because we're family doesn't mean that we're always provided with the best caretakers or to help us navigate through difficult times.

"But I liked that Maddie was trying - I mean, she's trying her best, albeit imperfectly. Which I also liked, you know, that feels messy and truthful."

Little Wing is released on Paramount Plus on Thursday 14th March. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide to see what's on tonight.

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