Andrea Riseborough is an "extraordinary" actress, says director Amit Gupta.

The British star has risen to fame in the past couple of years with stand-out roles in films including Never Let Me Go, Brighton Rock and Madonna's directorial effort W.E.

Amit was struck by Andrea's talent while he directed her in new film Resistance.

"I just thought she brought a stillness and a weighted emotion, that I thought was rather extraordinary. I just find her compelling to watch," he said in an interview.

"She was just able to do so much with so little, in terms of what she was doing. It's a very, very nuanced performance."

Amit believes that Andrea has a rare quality that isn't normally found in actresses. The filmmaker admires her lack of vanity in front of the camera.

"There's no narcissism. She wasn't trying to be liked and that's a very hard thing to do, to be that simple and not want to be liked by the audience or the camera. She made the decisions very truthfully and I think it's an amazing performance, I really do," he gushed.

However, Amit admits he got lucky when casting Andrea in the role.

Initially, the 30-year-old star wasn't free to make the film.

"When we were first casting, Andrea wasn't available," Amit explained. "Then later the casting changed, and I got the script over to her as quickly as possible and I said beg her to read it' and see if she will remotely think about doing this. She read the script and I met her at Terminal 5 at Heathrow on the way to the Toronto Film Festival. I talked to her about the kind of film I wanted to make. Then I got a call saying she'd committed to doing it.

"I met her in September and we were filming in October, it was very fast."

Resistance is released in the UK on November 25.