Geena Davis' "hero" is Susan Sarandon.

Geena said: "An eye-opening moment in my life, a very defining moment, was the first time I met Susan Sarandon.

"We were going to meet, just Ridley and Susan and I, to go through the script and see if we had any thoughts or ideas.

"So I meet Susan, and she was amazing. We sit down to go through the script. I swear, I think it was page one-- she says, 'So my first line, I don't think we need that line. Or we could put it on page two. Cut this ...' And I was just like ... My jaw was to the ground. Because she was just saying what she thought!

"She was saying her opinion. Even though I was 34 or 35 or something. I was like, 'People can do that? Women can actually just say what they think?'

"It was an extraordinary experience to do that movie with her because every day was a lesson in how to just be yourself.

"I drive her nuts. I'm always talking about her being my hero. I'm sure she's probably sick of it."

And Susan's advice also came in incredibly useful for Geena - who has daughter Alizeh, 14, and twin sons Kian and Kaiis, 11, with fourth husband Reza Jarrahy - when she was pregnant as her labours ran extremely smoothly thanks to her pal appealing to her competitive nature.

Asked the best piece of advice she's been given by Emma Watson, who was interviewing her for Interview magazine, she said: "It turns out that it is from Susan Sarandon.

"When I got pregnant, she said, 'All right. I'm gonna tell you the thing to do when you're giving birth: Push like you're trying to win a prize, like you want to be the best patient he's ever had. He's going to give you a prize for winning that.' So I did.

"And I swear to God, he said, 'You are probably the best pusher I've had as a patient.'

"I'm very competitive, I think. I could just picture that as a goal. It was like a stage direction or something: 'She's doing this as though she was to win a prize.' I kind of like that. Everything I do, I want to take it to the farthest possible degree."