Veteran actress Julie Walters says sharing screen space with young actress Dixie Egerickx in The Secret Garden was not like working with another child in a lot of ways.

Praising the 15-year-old Egerickx, who plays Mary Lennox in the film, Walters, 70, said: "Dixie is extraordinary, she is incredibly bright, she is a really good actress! It would be interesting to see whether she chooses acting later or what she will choose because she is clearly adept at most things."

"It's not like working with another child in a lot of ways, you can have proper chats. I mean we have been discussing Donald Trump and all sorts," she added.

The film is an adaptation of the 1911 classic novel of the same name, by Frances Hodgson Burnett.

"I don't know any little girl or boy actually, who wouldn't love it really. It just had everything, it was sort of mysterious and creepy, exciting and unusual," Walters shared.

She admitted that it was the re-imagined plot that pulled her towards the project.

"For me what came out in this adaptation of 'The Secret Garden' is that it was about neglected people. I find that very moving, people who are isolated and neglected and may possibly be depressed and how through one another they find light," she said.

"The Secret Garden", directed by Marc Munden, also stars Colin Firth. The film will be released on January 8 in India by PVR Pictures.