Parminder Nagra Quotes

My father in the film - which we probably haven't seen in previous movies, and in British Asian movies you could probably count on one hand - he says exactly why, actually why he's frightened for his daughter. He came to this country, England, and had a bit of a crappy time.

I was worried people would laugh at me when I started to talk the language, but they were just pleasantly surprised that I could. The sense of humour here is great - once I could have a giggle, I settled down.

At times those skills were really hard to do because not only was I having to contend with the camera, but I was having to learn these new skills and the ball was always kind of doing what you didn't want it to do. So it got a little bit frustrating at times but we got there.

Before I started doing the film and when I found out I was going to be doing it, I just decided to pump up on the whole cardio stuff. Just in terms of stamina.

But we had a fantastic coach, Simon Clifford, who runs a British football youth game which teaches Brazilian techniques - which is what we wanted to incorporate into the film. And some of those things we eventually got in.

That's what I like about acting. When you're preparing for a role, you do your research, and the bonus is you get to learn these skills. Now, it's on to whatever the next thing is I have to learn.

I got to go to Malaysia, Germany, Switzerland, Madrid, America.

In terms of soccer, it wasn't really a thing that girls did. In England it more kind of Net Ball and Hockey and stuff like that in athletics. It's to each their own, really.

I'm actually going in to ER as the new British intern.

And of course in America you've got American football and baseball and all those other ball games, soccer has become a little niche that the women have kind of filled.

But it's a very universal story and the thing is I was reluctant to answer that question because I don't want people latching on to a particular stereotype.

I really identified with Jess, because my own dream was acting, which isn't the most conventional profession.

No, I didn't quite know to what extent the football might be, but it was quite a bonus for me to try to learn new skills and to keep fit at the same time.

In London there was an article about all these girls bending it like Beckham, and in India there's this big wave of girls playing football. Wow! I can't believe a movie's done this!