Rust And Bone, Jacques Audiard’s follow-up to the acclaimed A Prophet, has recently been unveiled in Cannes (look out for our reaction soon) and today we sat down with its star, Marion Cotillard.

The actress plays a killer-whale trainer named Stéphanie, and in one of the film’s finest shots stands in front of the glass wall of a tank, making hand signals while a whale mirrors them on the other side. As it turns out, getting that shot in the can was far from easy.

“There were two whales and the first one went kind of mad at me,” says Cotillard. “It was the only time I was really scared and freaked out, even though I knew that the glass was totally secure. The whole crew was behind me, so it wasn’t the usual show for her, and she screamed at me with her jaws wide open. I got really scared.”

The narky sea-beast was hastily shown back to its underwater trailer, and replaced with a more amiable killer whale called Valentin. This, apparently, was just a blip in an otherwise smooth-sailing part of the shoot.

“I was lucky to have a very strong connection right away with the whales,” Cotillard continues. “With Valentin, I was able to improvise — I would wave and she would wave back; I decided to tickle her nose and she would make the bubbles. She reacted to everything I proposed to her. It was amazing.”

Sadly, she refused to confirm whether Bane will be using irate orca to rain hell on Gotham in The Dark Knight Rises, remaining as tight-lipped about Christopher Nolan’s forthcoming trilogy-capper as the rest of its cast.

“I cannot say much, as you know, which is a good thing. I like to go to the movies without any information, then you have surprises. But as you saw from the last trailer, I get to kiss Batman.” And how was it? “How was it to kiss Batman?” she smiles, enigmatically, then mock-shudders. “Jeez…”

Or did she say, “Cheese”? Has Batman been eating gouda? SPOILER!

Rust And Bone is out in the UK later in the year, The Dark Knight Rises will be in cinemas July 20.