Alicia Vikander has had "new emotions" to draw on since becoming a mother

Alicia - who gave birth to her first child in 2021 and her second child earlier this year - told HELLO!: "As an actor, I think you always draw on your own life experiences and fantasies as well as your imagination.

"I had played a mother before I became a parent myself.

"I gave birth on screen three times before I gave birth for real.

"I definitely feel you get access to endless new emotions to draw on the second you become a parent.

"It impacted the way I did this film, for sure."

Alicia also found that her costumes helped her to play the historical figure.

She explained: "The first costume fitting, the ritual of putting it on, was pivotal in my finding the character.

"The clothes are a reminder of what life was like for women like Catherine back then.

"But the costumes were just so beautiful and authentic.

"I had seven or eight layers on most of the time. It was 30 minutes just to put it all on. I loved them."

What's more, the actress did "a lot of research" about the Tudor era before filming started.

Speaking about her preparation, she said: "There is a lot of research.

"I spoke a lot with [director] Karim Ainouz and I read a lot of books and listened to a lot of lectures from experts on the Tudors who came and spent time with us.

"Of course, this happened 500 years ago, so we can't know for sure every detail of what happened, but that's the beauty of telling a story like this."