There is something terrifying about chasing a dream. Nobody knows that better than Jessie Buckley, the Irish singer and actress who has been chasing her dream since she was a teenager, when she first came to public attention on the BBC talent show I'd Do Anything.
Now 29, she has roles in War And Peace, Taboo and The Last Post, as well as the award-winning film Beast, under her belt, but she still remembers that fear.
"It's really scary to want something for yourself," she says thoughtfully, as she sits back in an armchair in a London hotel.
"When you have a passion and a dream or a sense of wanting to reach for something, it's like falling in love.
"You risk a bit of yourself and you have to risk that, otherwise you are just going to coast in life and not really exist."
This is certainly how her latest character feels in the movie Wild Rose.
Buckley plays Rose-Lynn, a young mum in Glasgow newly released from prison for a minor offence and desperate to chase her dream of making it as a country singer in Nashville, Tennessee.
"When I first read it, it was like I had been plugged in by an electric current.
"It felt like it was a female prison break film with all these outlaws and this character in the middle of it who is just this tenacious firecracker, who is very human in all of that, and complex.
"She is of the people, there is no sheen. It felt like I know those people and I just felt so excited about her, and her bravery and courage just blew me away.
"Usually, as a woman, you get offered parts where there's a sheen over who you are as a woman and you're not allowed to be imperfect.
"But Rose-Lynn was human and wasn't perfect and I totally related to that. At its heart, the film is about ordinary people doing something extraordinary, against the odds.
"It's about people that have been marginalised by society, and told they can only exist in that corner - which, for Rose-Lynn, is on an estate, which is being in and out of prison, which is having kids when she was very young, working in the bakers.
"They may dream of going somewhere else, but they never have the opportunities or the courage to go grab their dreams."
Indeed, Rose-Lynn's mother Marion, played by Dame Julie Walters, would much rather see her daughter get a stable job to support her children than jet off to Nashville.
Rose-Lynn gets a job as a cleaning lady to fund the trip, where she meets the wealthy and bored Susannah (played by Sophie Okonedo) who hears her singing and wants to help.
"What was brilliant was it crossed all social boundaries," Buckley says.
"For Susannah, I felt the film was like a prison break for her too, to break out of her domestic sphere.
"Susannah's got a hunger to live a life that is human and connected and that's what Rose-Lynn and Susannah give each other."
The film gave Buckley the chance to cement two new great loves - Dame Julie and Okonedo, who she describes as "amazing, like massive babes", and also country music, which was a new discovery in her musical repertoire.
The soundtrack is crammed full of original songs, including one penned by Oscar-winning actress Mary Steenburgen, and others by Buckley and writer Nicole Taylor.
"The lyrics of country are extraordinary," Buckley says.
"The good songs in country are 'three chords and the truth' and they really have a way of getting right into your soul and pulling it out.
"Rose-Lynn is such a fireball of emotion and one of the songs, Outlaw State Of Mind, has got such attitude and is like a Janis Joplin rock out.
"That is the art of Rose-Lynn's character, and it is such fun to play. But then at the other end of the spectrum, you have the song Peace In This House where the lyrics are a lullaby to her children.
"As much as Rose-Lynn is scared that she is a mother and that she has kids and she has love for them, her way of expressing that is through song. That enables her, in that one moment, to dive into that scary pool.
"Then the song Glasgow is the first time her mum ever hears her sing really, and she has written this song to her mum, for her mum, saying 'Sorry', saying 'Thank you, I love you, I am you, and we are a family unit'."
Indeed, Glasgow's role in the film is much more than just a song title. The film was largely shot in the city and Buckley relocated to Scotland before production started to perfect her Scottish accent.
"I worked with a dialect coach for a few months and then I just bottled myself into Glasgow like a month before we started shooting and relentlessly, and probably unashamedly, went around speaking in a Glasgow accent hoping that I would get away with it.
"I was also drinking a lot of whisky in The Ben Nevis (a pub with an impressive selection of bottles). That is really what I did."
How did the locals respond to her accent?
"They were fine, they didn't really bat an eyelid. I was like, 'I'm getting away with it!'"
Wild Rose is out now in UK cinemas.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here