We only got about five weeks in total, being allowed to surf, three weeks at the beginning and two weeks of water work at the end - for insurance purposes we couldn't film for three months in between and do our own surfing; but I was more than happy to let my double go and do that.
- How much do you enjoy taking on those challenges of learning new skills for a movie role?
I love it! It's one of the main things that I love about my job. You are never playing yourself so I really love that I get to be someone else, play a different character and take on that persona but I also have to take on their qualifications.
We had to pinch ourselves so many times to sort of go 'this is our job' we were sitting out in the ocean with world class surfers. And there was this one scene with elephants where these elephants walk past us and put their trunks on our faces - these are wild elephants - so you sort of go 'right... that's my job'. I'm a very lucky girl.
- Mike Elliott helmed the movie so how did you find him as a director?
I love him. That man has become my family for the rest of my life. He is such a wonderful guy and he is s jokester - he was playing jokes on us for the entire movie and just made it so much fun.
He was really hard core because he would get the water with us, which is really unexpected because they can feed the stream and he could have watched from the beach, he chose to be hypothermic too.
He really was a great director.
- You are a British actress who is primarily based in LA so how have you found the move to the States?
I just feel incredibly blessed because it's a very very tough industry in general but going somewhere as a foreigner makes it a lot harder - you would think it would be easier because you stand out but you don't actually want to do that. Most of the roles that I go for are Americans so the first thing I had to do was pin down the American accent - which is obviously in Blue Crush 2.
I just love it. I live a fantastic life, I have fantastic friends - I stay out of the Hollywood stuff as much as I can because it's so much fun that you don't want to go down that path you just want to work.
But luckily my job gives me more of a rush than being a party girl - I love my job.
- You have also done plenty of work in TV in recent years with the likes of One Tree Hill so how do movies and television work compare - or differ?
The movies take stamina, more so than TV. TV is like high school because you go into these series and the people that work there have been doing it for seven years, like One Tree Hill, so you are going into what is already a family - if you are accepted by that family then it's fantastic fun.
On a movie you are making your own family - you are working with these people for three months in a row, in a foreign country with none of your people around.
TV is mainly based around where you are - I got to go to North Carolina, which is about four hours from LA, so you didn't feel that separate.
But when I went to South Africa for three months you sort of feel very lonely but then you realise than you are no where near alone you just have a new family around you.
So that's how they differ; TV is like high school movies is like family.
- Finally what's next for you?
I have a couple of movie deals in the pipeline which I'm not allowed to talk about, which really bothers me seeing as it is an interview. I get to get on plane tomorrow and head back to LA to get back to work.
I can't wait to get home and audition again - I have only been out of it for a week but my manger has been sending through my appointments and it's making me itch like a kid at Christmas.
Blue Crush 2 is released DVD & Blu-Ray 18th July.
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw