Alicia Vikander felt ''terrified'' when Guy Ritchie asked her to ''improvise''.

The 26-year-old Swedish actress - who plays a leading role in Guy Ritchie's film 'The Man From U.N.C.L.E' - started to have more ''fun'' with her role once she became comfortable performing in English rather than her ''native language''.

Talking about working with the British filmmaker - who was once married to Madonna - she said: ''It was a nice, collaborative vibe and [Ritchie] made me improvise - which, when it's not in my native language, got me even more terrified! But then you start to trust each other and to have fun.''

The movie is Alicia's first big comedy break and she said it was ''a revelation'' that people found her funny.

She added: ''It was a revelation when somebody actually laughed at something I did.''

She also thinks it's ''quite rare'' an opportunity for strong female characters to be in such big franchises, like 'The Man From U.N.C.L.E'.

She told The Sunday Telegraph's Stella magazine: ''Seeing one of the big-franchise movies have such strong female characters is quite rare. Here they have their own agendas, and it was fun playing a character where you're not sure what side she is really on.''

'The Man From U.N.C.L.E' is out on August 14.