A. drama Harsh Times, which was released in the UK on DVD last month. UK audiences got their first proper glimpse of you on the big screen with Harsh Times - which is coming out now on DVD.
Can you give us a recap for those who missed it at the cinema. Yeah - it's myself, Christian Bale, Eva Longoria and David Ayre - Training Day - who wrote and directed it. We play best friends in the film and Christian's suffering from posttraumatic stress syndrome.
He comes back from the Iraq war, and he's suffering from it, and I play his best friend and the only guy to get through to him. It must have been great to move from a challenging role on TV with Six Feet Under to a similar role on the big screen. Yeah, well it was a completely different character to play, post television show.
I was just blessed I had the opportunity to do it. It was great to go toe to toe with somebody like Christian. And a wonderful human being as well.
How much does it raise your game, being in a film where the acting's at the forefront like Harsh Times? Yeah it always raises your game - we play off each other in the roles, and if an actor like Christian comes on board, it raises your game, and I think I raise his game as well. Touching briefly on your new project Grindhouse - you must be unbelievably excited as the release approaches?
Yeah, Grindhouse, yeah. This was the thing back in the 1970's, the double feature. You would go to these big movie houses in the U.
S. and see two films for the price of one. That's Grindhouse.
Half of it is going to be directed by Quentin Tarantino and half is directed by Robert Rodriguez, and I star in Robert's half. How did that work, did you know what was going on in the other half at the time? I did because I read the script.
It was two completely successful things. What can you tell us about the film? Has the soundtrack been wrapped yet?
Hmmm, interesting question. The soundtrack, I guess we'll hear more near the premier date. But the film is intense you know, Robert's is a horror film, Quentin's is a slasher film.
It's diving into those two genres, but with the quality that these two directors bring to a film. What's Robert like to work with? Does he talk about music much on set - I know with Grinderman he actually played creepy John carpenter music when you were working?
Robert was great to work with, really was. He's a technological genius, he directs his own films, he does everything himself. It was wonderful to work with him.
He's funny. We would shoot a scene, and because Robert's funny, he would shoot on HD and we were able to watch the scene right after he did it. So we'd watch the scene and he would play his creepy John Carpenter music over the scene.
So it definitely set a tone on set, and we knew what he was aiming for. Tell us a bit more about your character, which always seem to shine through on Rodriguez films'? Well, if your familiar with Robert's films in the past you always have some sort of anti-hero and that's who I play.
I had two to three months of knife training, gun training, choreography and physical training. Before that comes out however you've getting your own slice of music stardom with Fergie - how did the video shoot come about? Hahaha!
Well Fergie's first two films were Poseidon and Grindhouse, and both were with me, so we knew each other from then. We were pals, and her camp called me up, said 'hey, we're doing this video', because we're friends and because we had a film coming out. So you didn't dream up a rap name for yourself?
I was thinking F-Rod might fit? Yeah F-Rod - there you go! Haha!
Grindhouse hits cinemas this summer in the UK, following a spring release in the States.
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