Cara Delevingne says being asked to star in a Luc Besson directed movie made her "cry and drop my jaw to the floor".

Cara Delevingne

Cara Delevingne

The 24-year-old actress plays the part of Sergeant Laureline in the new Besson-directed sci-fi film 'Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets' and Cara has revealed just how excited she was to appear in the movie.

Speaking in London's Leicester Square at the European premiere of her new film on Monday (24.07.17), Cara shared: "I don't know what made me cry and drop my jaw to the floor more, watching this film or being asked by Luc Besson to star. I don't know what's going on."

Besson was similarly complimentary about Cara, comparing her to Academy Award-winning actress Natalie Portman, Milla Jovovich and Scarlett Johansson.

The French movie-maker also encouraged Britons to throw their support behind the model-turned-actress.

The acclaimed director said: "Cara, she's a kangaroo. She's jumping all the time and I was honestly amazed by her ability and capacity to play this role. I know some people have doubts about it, but believe me I've worked with Natalie Portman, with Milla Jovovich with Scarlett [Johansson] and Cara is on the team.

"She's one of the best. And I'm very super proud and I hope people in the UK will support her because she's amazing."

Cara first became a worldwide star because of her modelling work, but recently admitted she's always been more passionate about acting.

She said: "To be honest, acting is something I've wanted to do my entire life.

"It really teaches me so much about myself and about life, and that's what I've always wanted to do. It makes me very happy."