Wilson 'studied panthers' to learn about prey

Actress Peta Wilson studied the behavior of panthers and jaguars to prepare for her role as vampire woman Mina Harker in The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

“Mina’s quiet – and you have to watch the quiet ones,” she tells the New York Daily News. “During my research I studied how panthers and jaguars wait for their prey and how they move and pounce.”

It is the first major film role for the Australian actress, who formerly starred in the television series La Femme Nikita.

She plays the sole female member of a team of literary superheroes, which includes Sean Connery as Allan Quartermain and Jason Flemyng as Dr Jekyll.

Wilson, who is romantically involved with the late Richard Harris’s son Damien, and has a 16-month-old son by him, claims she was not aware of any of the reported tension on the set between Connery and the film’s director Stephen Norrington.

“I didn’t notice,” she said. “I was busy taking care of my baby.”