Andrew Scott battled a speech impediment as a child

He told Variety: "I used to go to these drama classes on a Saturday, and I would be fully shaking before you go in. And then you'd have to get up in front of your other seven, eight-year-olds, and do an improvisation, or say a poem or something.

"I don't feel like it's an overstatement to say that I think it's completely changed my life - not just my career. I had a really bad lisp when I was a kid, so I had to do elocution lessons. I had to go, 'He sees seashells by the seashore,' and I just completely got rid of it."

He added: "Just to wrap that shyness thing up, somebody said a really brilliant thing to me, which was, like, 'There's nothing wrong with being shy. Be shy. It's a nice thing you go a little bit red'."

Andrew made the revelation in a joint interview with Brie Larson, who revealed she also used acting to become more confident as a shy child.

Brie explained: "My parents were chiropractors, and I was super shy. I wouldn't let it go. Of course, it's changed the course of my life in so many ways.

"But at a time when I was so shy and had such a hard time expressing myself, at 6 years old, I was basically given, like, 'OK, here's a script for how you have a conversation'.

"The actual fibre of how I understand how to have pleasant conversations with people is based upon weekly acting sessions."

Brie added that shyness still affects her as an adult, adding: "I blush very easily. It's horrible."