If you’re making a list of masculine actresses, chances are that Mira Sorvino doesn’t jump to the top. A brassy lass (“Mighty Aphrodite,” “The Replacement Killers”), maybe. But a guy? No way, dude.

Then again, “Triumph of Love” isn’t exactly Tootsie in reverse. Based on the French playwright Marivaux’s 18th-century comedy, the new film features Sorvino as a princess who dons male garb to get close to a prince who has been taught to shun women. Like Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night,” this is a case of gender-bending as dramatic conceit, not realistic construct none of which made it any less challenging for the first-time fella.

“It’s an attitude, both physical and mental,” says Sorvino by phone. “It’s all about projecting an unafraid posture in the world and walking with your shoulders thrown back and your chest forward and legs akimbo.”

And guess what, guys? She even feels your pain.

“I felt this new understanding of the difficulty of being a man,” Sorvino says. “Women can acceptably show vulnerability and indecision in public, and it seems that men cannot. Men just present a more unified front, no matter what might be happening behind their foreheads.”

Sorvino likes to test her abilities: She was first noticed by many as an enigmatic Spanish gal in Whit Stillman’s droll 1994 comedy “Barcelona,” and she brought a high-pitched, voice/body disconnect feel to a rather standard prostitute role in 1995’s “Mighty Aphrodite.” Her efforts won her a supporting actress Oscar.

But “Triumph” came with two new challenges: Playing a man, and, perhaps more difficult, playing a Brit in the company of genuine articles Ben Kingsley, Fiona Shaw and director Clare Peploe. Despite a few slips in her Received Pronunciation, she puts on a jolly good show.