With you being practically the only British member of the "Pearl Harbor" cast, was it a daunting experience playing an American in such a huge Hollywood production?
It was a little bit daunting because I was surrounded by thoroughbred Americans, so I was thinking they were a bit mad to take me on. But what was more of a challenge was trying to get a handle on the military and patriotic vigour of it, and the certain sense of enthusiasm for standing up for yourself at that point in time. We don’t really have that sort of experience in this generation.
You play a pretty gung-ho all-American boy in the film. Did you draw on childhood fantasies of being a hero soldier for inspiration?
I never saw myself as remotely Americaniseable, and that idea of running around with guns and soldiers was something I never could play. So for me, being made to do that was actually brand new.
Did you have any input into developing your character?
Michael and Jerry were both fired up all day and were open to trying to make a scene more dramatic and so they were pretty creative.
What are you up to next?
I’m doing "Black Hawk Down" with Josh Hartnett and Jerry Bruckheimer again, with Ridley Scott directing.
Read an interview with "Pearl Harbor" star Kate Beckinsale.
