Josh O'Connor had to stop filming 'God's Own Country' to deliver a lamb.

Josh O'Connor and Alec Secareanu

Josh O'Connor and Alec Secareanu

The 27-year-old actor spent several weeks working on a farm as research for his role as farmer Johnny and immersed himself in the experience as much as he could.

He told heat magazine: "It was part of wanting the whole thing to be authentic.

"I worked with a guy called John for three weeks before filming and during the shoot.

"I'd be doing a scene, they'd yell cut and then John would come and get me and I'd help deliver a lamb.

"So I wasn't in a trailer with my feet up, I was going to the farm and sticking my hand up a cow's a**e."

Josh believes audiences will be able to connect with troubled Johnny, who finds a new way to love when he meets a Romanian migrant worker - who is played by Alec Secareanu - and wanted to show how there is always "hope".

He said: "I think we all have, or have had, a character like Johnny in our lives - someone who is so angry and seems to have no hope.

"He's a hot mess who lets his anger out with casual sex and alcohol abuse.

"Somewhere deep within me is someone like that, and we've all dated someone like that, so I wanted to give the other side of that story.

"I wanted to show how he gets hope in his life. I wanted to see that film."

And the actor is very proud that shooting each scene took so few takes to get right.

He said: "The descriptions of the sex scenes in the script are very vivid and visceral and beautiful and then we choreographed them so we did know what we were going to do.

"Like the sex scene in the mud, which is so mad and dirty and wild, was so carefully choreographed that we did it in two takes. In fact, there's not one scene in the whole film that we did more than twice."