Bruce Willis says he’s not giving up playing tough guy roles, as his new film shows. He talks to Steve Pratt about fighting and not getting hurt.

SCREEN tough guy Bruce Willis has taken on and beaten many strong guys on screen. But this was too strong, even for him. He had to spit out the cough sweet he was sucking, with a comment of “That’s strong”.

The plate of cough sweets brought by the waiter at the Dorchester Hotel remains untouched for the rest of the time he talks about his new film, RED. That stands for Retired, Extremely Dangerous. Willis is one of a group of retired CIA agents who are targeted by their own secret service because of a secret from the past.

Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, Richard Dreyfuss and Brian Cox play some of the old-timers. And there, pulling the trigger on an impressive array of firepower, is Helen Mirren, who, it is said, took the role because she had a big crush on Willis. “I’m a big fan of Helen Mirren’s and I’m very flattered that she has a crush on me. I’ll try not to blush.

It’s a high compliment to be told that someone I’m such a fan of has a crush on me,” he answers politely.

“A remarkable thing happened in this film, and it doesn’t happen in a lot of movies, and not by anyone’s choice, or not by any plan, we ended up with a lot of movie stars, great actors and actresses in this film. No one planned on that, people just started showing up, and once you got started, we just couldn’t say no to anyone.

“It was like Christmas. Once every four days or so, a new movie star would show up to work with us. It was big fun and we fooled around a lot. We laughed and joked and drank and ate food that was great, and just made a movie in there somewhere.”

More than anything, having all these actors around made the movie fun to make (it’s good fun watching too). “There were days when I’d rush into work, when I couldn’t wait to get there and that doesn’t always happen. It seldom happens,” he says.

“All fun, all the time, and it was a really complicated story and script, and ambitious.

And director Robert Schwentke packed it all in, and got all those things in there. All those things seemed to come together.”

As well as Dame Helen, he enjoyed working with Mary-Louise Parker, who plays his love interest – a consumer services advisor with whom he flirts over the phone and drags along on the adventure with his old pals.

He wishes there was more of the love story in the movie. “Big fun. Mary-Louise makes me laugh. Very funny,” he says.

“I like the romance in it. We were continually asked to keep the romance as chaste as we possibly could, and I think we did a great job with that. Thank goodness Mary-Louise was making us laugh.

“I didn’t know that my side of the romance was going to be so nebbish, so pathetic, that I felt, ‘maybe they can spruce this up in the editing’. I’ve not seen myself like that. It’s a nice romance and a throwback to not being cynical about love, maybe, but fun.”

For a first date, being pursued by a hit squad makes it pretty unique. So has Willis had any awful first dates? “The worst are the ones when you know it’s over in about the first ten or 15 minutes, and you have to stay there for the rest of the evening. Oh man!

This was well before cell phones, so you couldn’t text someone and say, ‘In 15 minutes, call my phone, tell me someone’s been arrested.’ But I’m not dating anymore, so thank goodness that’s all over.”

Stallone has said he’s not giving up making action movies because that’s what the audience wants from him. Willis feels much the same. “I haven’t considered not working.

The fight scene that I do with Karl Urban in this film is really physical. I didn’t give it any thought, going into that film, other than wanting to make the fight scene look good, but contact was made, as I’m prone to say, but it looks good.

“There was a longer fight scene than what’s in the film, but it looks violent. I don’t bounce as high off things any more, but I’ve never thought about stopping.

“We both got a little roughed up, but the trick is to try and stay safe, and be able to go to work the next day.”

He doesn’t know if Hollywood is changing the way it treats older actors because he recalls watching movies when he was a kid and they are all older tough guys.

“I knew when I was doing Moonlighting on TV that the most fun films would be when I got into my 40s. There’d be more things to do.

I had a good time then, but I always wanted to do other things that I just wasn’t ready to do until I was older. I’m having a ball.”

Unlike some stars, Willis has retained a sense of humour about himself and his career. He’ll admit there are projects he’d like to revisit and do better. There’s maybe a dozen films he’d like to strike off the list.

“You’ve seen them, you know which ones suck,” he says.

“Singing? No, over, retired. I never really called myself a singer, for good reason. I used to shout in key – that’s about as close as I ever got. I like to think of myself as a singer, but there are other people that really are singers, that do it a lot better than I ever did.”

But he’s not about to call time on being an action man. Die Hard 5 is being developed as he speaks. “I know there’s a script being written, and yes, I would do it,” says Willis.

■ RED (12A) is now showing in cinemas.