English rose Kate Winslet adds a different style of role to her acting repertoire in new crime thriller Triple 9, donning bouffant hair and tonnes of bling to play a Russian crime boss.

The Titanic actress, in the running for another Oscar this year for her turn in "Steve Jobs", stars alongside Woody Harrelson, Casey Affleck and Chiwetel Ejiofor in an action-packed movie about corrupt police and the criminal underworld.

"When I read it, I just thought 'God, why on earth would they want me to be in this film?' This is nothing like I ever did before and something very different," she said at the London screening of the film on 9 February. "It's a contemporary heist movie. I play a Russian Israeli mafia boss, I mean...she's properly evil. And I wanted that challenge."

Winslet, who puts on a thick accent in the film, added she worked early on with director John Hillcoat to create her character Irina Vlaslov's appearance.

"The look was really quite specific. When he first showed me pictures of these rather sort of Versace hairstyles, I couldn't quite believe that he was going to be that daring," she said. "But that was what he wanted and that was what we gave him. And it was a heck of a lot of fun for me."

Set in the city of Atlanta, Triple 9 follows the planning of a major heist, with plenty of guns and bloodshed thrown in for good measure. Breaking Bad actor Aaron Paul portrays a former cop turned gang member in the film, which he called "the darkest thing" he had ever worked on. "I just love super dark, intense, gritty dramas and this is just that," he said.

Triple 9 opens in the UK on 19 February and in the US on 26 February.

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