Domhnall Gleeson relied on a poem to develop his accent for 'The Little Stranger'.

Domhnall Gleeson

Domhnall Gleeson

The 35-year-old actor stars as Dr Faraday alongside actress Ruth Wilson in the horror film, and Domhnall has revealed how he managed to maintain his British accent through the duration of the movie.

He said: "[Director Lenny Abrahamson] wanted something different so it's a mixture of Warwickshire working-class and then period, as it's the late 1940s - then also he aspires to be posh."

Domhnall admitted he used a poem in a bid to avoid reverting back into his real-life Dublin accent.

He told the Herald newspaper: "I have a poem I do in the morning and a few phrases I go over and over, and I tend to keep the accent going during the day as well to make sure I don't slip out of it."

Despite his success in the film business, Domhnall recently admitted he never planned to become an actor.

The Irish star - whose father is the award-winning actor Brendan Gleeson - performed in school productions of 'Grease' and 'King Lear' and later graduated with a degree in Media Arts from the Dublin Institute of Technology, but it wasn't his ambition to work in movies.

He explained: "I didn't go to drama school and never thought about being an actor.

"I could go to my dad when auditioning and say, 'What do I do with this?' and he would talk me through it.

"His advice was what people would pay huge money for."