It was very physically demanding. Russell Crowe will attest to it, you walk away battered and bruised but still it’s a lot of fun, and of course he keeps the whole environment as safe as he can. It comes with the territory of doing movies like this. You expect that kind of stuff to happen.

What about the scene where you are tortured, how was that to film?

People are always wondering what the big injury story is mine was that I got a cold. The torture scene was a very important sequence for me. I don’t even like to use that term, it’s an interrogation scene. We knew that was a pivotal moment in the movie and that the film wouldn’t have the same weight, the same intensity or realism, unless that sequence was as authentic as possible. So that was the scene that I put the most thought and energy into, to try to be authentic.

I spoke to the ex-head of the CIA actually, and CIA operatives, to ask what would a person in this situation do. What would he reveal to the enemy? Would he be thinking about his country? Would he be thinking about his own survival? What would the enemy try to extract from him information-wise?

All this stuff was culminating in a really hard, three day sequence in an underground tomb in the middle of Morocco. And I got a chest cold afterwards.

Your character is somebody who’s trying to hold onto normality and humanity in a world where those things are irrelevant is that something you can relate to from your experience of fame?

I don’t think I could at all compare the job of what these people do in the armed forces, and what they do for our country, in comparison to my job as an actor being followed by paparazzi. They’re two entirely different animals.

I think the general consensus amongst people blessed enough to be able to do what we do is that we entirely understand that, although you may hear the odd complaint here and there, we entirely understand that it comes with the territory and the responsibility of doing what we do.

Otherwise we would quit. I think we’re a very lucky and fortunate group of people who have very little to complain about, especially when you talk about the comparison to people that are risking their lives to save our country it’s impossible to compare the two.

You worked with Russell Crowe in the 1990s of course, how was it working with him again?

I got to work with when I was 18 years old. He’d done Romper Stomper, I just did What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, so there we were converging on this big budget movie called The Quick and the Dead starring Gene Hackman and Sharon Stone.

We forged a friendship there on that set, because we didn’t know where to fit in. We didn’t belong to the character actor group or the movie star group.

I remember talking to him about movies a lot back then, the type of actor that he wanted to be, the type of films that he liked and he’s still the same guy that he was back then.

He’s incredibly funny, he’s committed to his work, is a fantastic actor and great to be around. I have nothing but great things to say about him, and I was happy to reunite with him on this movie, because I think he’s developed an incredible body of work and given some unforgettable performances.

So tell us, how many times did you get to kick him over in his chair in the film?

That was one of the first sequences in the movie, actually. That was Ridley’s suggestion, to kick off our relationship in the movie. I believe that may even have been the second day of shooting. Ridley was very insistent that I kick Russell over in his chair, because we were talking about other ways in which Roger would express himself, after he’d just risked his life, to his CIA superior. That’s what we came up with. It kept making Ridley laugh to see Russell tumble off that chair.

Body of Lies is released on DVD 30th March

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