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Anne-Marie Duff confesses she was not familiar with the world of ballet, or the extent of Margot Fonteyn's fame, before taking on the lead role in the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Four biopic Margot.

"I didn't really know anything about Margot Fonteyn. I'd never really been a ballet child so I had no idea what an incredibly huge icon she was, not just in terms of a creative icon – she was also a style icon. I had no idea she was up there with Audrey Hepburn and Jackie Onassis in terms of that kind of image."

As she researched the part, Anne-Marie, who was twice BAFTA-nominated for her portrayal of Fiona Gallagher in Shameless, was fascinated to discover the life and career of Fonteyn.

"I found out not just about her profile, her talent, the success she achieved on the stage, but about this incredible private life – that's when it became really interesting.

"I love the idea of this seemingly perfect individual having this manic, chaotic existence at home which was driven by desires that have nothing to do with the stage – this husband who was so dubious but also so political and manly, the antithesis of all those boys in tights, no wonder she adored him. Her life was incredible."

The physical preparation for the role presented a real challenge, but Anne-Marie, whose portrayal of Queen Elizabeth I in The Virgin Queen earned her another BAFTA nomination, relished the prospect.

"For about six weeks before we began filming I worked very hard, for a week solid on Pilates, then I worked with the Royal Ballet dancers for about six weeks.

"It was punishing and I felt like an absolute fool every day! But I was incredibly lucky – I was trained by Michael Nunn and William Trevitt [ex Royal Ballet dancers and founders of the Ballet Boyz], very well respected dancers and filmmakers – they worked myself and Michiel [Hausman, who plays Nureyev] really, really hard, every day, hours and hours and hours, until we could reach a stage where we'd be able to get away with certain things.

"I sat in on classes, workshops and rehearsals and just watched dancers because they're just so different from actors – it's a completely different world.

"It was great to smell it, see it, hear it and know it in a visceral way. We worked terribly hard, but it was good fun, a great adventure. When it's a world of which you know nothing you feel like a pioneer sailing off. You feel incredibly lucky."

Having such an insight into the world of ballet was a thrilling experience, but Anne-Marie knew she could never emulate one of the world's greatest ballet dancers with just six weeks of training.

She explains: "Obviously we had to have doubles because as much as you can work on your upper body there's no way you can make your legs look like they've had 20 years of dance training, it's impossible in six weeks!

"My objective was to be standing in a suit or sitting at a table and for people to think 'yes, she's a dancer' because carriage is everything for a dancer – they're so open and different. That was the priority, as well as achieving certain levels of success when it came to the dance scenes."

It was not only the physical aspect of dancing that Anne-Marie gained from the ballet world, she also got an insight into the characters she was playing from people that knew Fonteyn – though they were not always forthright about divulging information about her.

"I met lots of people that knew her, older dancers, choreographers. It was tricky sometimes because they were terribly protective of her. Some of them were a bit bitchy about her because she danced forever!

"I experienced lots of different responses to her. It was quite nice because without people realising they let you know the silly things about her, and that's always what you're interested in as an actor. Her perfume, a silly laugh, she was always rubbing her foot – things like that. Apparently she had a really girly giggle, she was a real laugher."

To create authentic-looking performances director Otto Bathurst (Criminal Justice, Five Days) employed clever techniques for filming the dance scenes between Anne-Marie and Michiel Hausman (Nureyev), using a seamless combination of actors and doubles.

Describing these scenes Anne-Marie says: "We filmed up at Alexandra Palace, they have a derelict old theatre which is stunningly beautiful so we filmed on the stage there.

"For all the performance scenes we filmed with cross-lights, which cleverly created this kind of odd, halfway world, and meant we could have fabulous shots of the proscenium where they could fill in the audience."

Due to their passionate dancing on-stage and the closeness of their friendship off-stage, rumours have long surrounded the exact nature of Fonteyn's and Nureyev's relationship.

Anne-Marie reflects: "It was no secret theirs was a passionate relationship – there was an enormous amount of chemistry on stage and in the rehearsal room.

"They laughed together all the time and he was such a presence within the rehearsal room, he made himself known very quickly, and people saw a change in her and in her dancing. She did fall in love with him, she said she fell in love with him.

"Nureyev brought a new life, a new chapter, just at the point where she was having to slow down. She was beginning to find herself being overtaken by the younger ballerinas and in comes this Russian tornado who makes her 25 again. It is incredible."

Margot Fonteyn always maintained her love for Nureyev was different to the love she had for her husband, Tito, and the two relationships were very different – though they were both full of drama.

Roberto 'Tito' Arias was a Panamanian diplomat whose infidelities were known to his wife.

Anne-Marie says: "Her choice of husband was curious and a risk. Tito wasn't available to her physically or emotionally in a way that could have made it easier. Perhaps she adored that, perhaps she loved the freedom of that and also the delicious agony of it, you don't know.

"You could make an amazing film about Roberto. He was so well-connected – he was like one of those brilliant fantasist con-men who was always telling you the millions were about to come in but for some reason they maintain that level of belief."

There were a few elements of Fonteyn's life that surprised Anne-Marie, in particular the celebrity status afforded to her and Rudolf.

"The whole paparazzi issue for Rudi and Margot, I found it astonishing how huge they were – international superstars, in that field.

"If you ask people now who's a famous dancer they might come up with Darcy Bussell, and if they know anything about dance, Carlos Acosta – beyond that nothing. You can't imagine ballet having that sort of huge influence, I just found it shocking."

Having had a glimpse at the world in which Fonteyn lived, and the intensity of being a ballerina, Anne-Marie feels she's had a greater insight into Margot's character.

She explains: "The level of sacrifice in the world of dancing is incredibly intense, that work ethic if nothing else – get up, go to class, rehearsal, performance, get up, go to class – that's your life and it's like that for a finite time usually.

"So there has to be a bit of you that gets off on the sacrifice, and I think she was certainly the leading lady of her own life. Whether that be within the company, within the Panamanian revolution or suddenly she's playing opposite this beautiful Russian boy in this caper, they get arrested in a drugs raid, or she's arrested for an attempted coup – I think there was an element of her that loves the suffering because I suppose it defined her."

Describing Margot Fonteyn Anne-Marie summarises: "She was very well-loved, I don't think she was too much of a diva. So, although she had this presence and energy, she wasn't grand in any way. She liked a good giggle, she was young at heart and up for a laugh."

Having had a taste of the ballet world, and trained with some of the best dancers in the world, has it given Anne-Marie inspiration to take up regular classes?

"It's great to do a class a week, but it takes something else entirely to have that level of dedication, and also I'm far too old to be a dancer now! Though if I was Margot Fonteyn I'd have 20 odd years left in me, she must have been like a bird, a frail little bird!

"It can't have been easy for her partners I don't think towards the end, because they must have just been having to facilitate, and also take care of her, those brittle bones!"