From green comic book character to sword-fighting with Brad Pitt was quite a transformation for Eric Bana, who nearly turned down the role of Hector in $200m epic Troy. He and Sheffield-born actor Sean Bean talked to Steve Pratt about big bidget battles.

LAST summer, he was green and mean at the Incredible Hulk. This year, Australian-born actor Eric Bana is a sword and sandals fighter Hector in Troy. Yet when the chance came along to star alongside Brad Pitt and Orlando Bloom in the $200m epic, he was initially reluctant to take the role. "It was more about self-belief," says Bana, explaining his hesitation.

"I read the script and realised it would be the opportunity of a lifetime. It was the greatest thing I'd ever read. But it was more a matter of going through the process of convincing myself that I could walk in Hector's shoes.

"That's the thing no one can help you with. You can learn how to fight, how to ride a horse. You can have a great cast and a great director. But if you don't really believe you can be that arrogant, you're not going to be able to pull it off.

"So it was a self-belief thing, it was never a reflection on the part or the role. It was more a reflection on the process that an actor goes through, and beating yourself up."

Bana first came to the notice of international cinema audiences after piling on the pounds to play Mark "Chopper" Read in the Aussie feature film Chopper. A key role in Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down was followed by The Incredible Hulk and now Troy.

One sequence that weighed heavily on him was the climactic fight between Hector and Achilles, played by Brad Pitt. The two actors performed the complicated duel without resorting to stunt doubles, after training for eight months.

The scene, which was the last one filmed, was revered throughout the whole shoot. "It was obviously a daily thing because Brad and I were training for it, literally every day when we weren't shooting," explains Bana.

"It was kind of melancholy because we were getting towards the end, but were really excited and pumped up. We were so ready. One of the greatest things we had said was by Simon Crane, the fight director, as we were putting on our armour. He said, 'I want to say just one thing to you guys - unless you're totally ready to kill each other, don't even get up out of your chairs. That's the level of intensity we need in this fight, and anything less than that is a waste of tape, and a waste of your energy'.

"He was right. It was about, in the heat, summoning up the adrenalin and just absolutely going for it. It was the most satisfying thing to do possible, it was just awesome."

Despite both Hulk and Troy being big budget productions, the actor says filming them couldn't have been more different in every possible way.

The Hulk was a small-scale production for him because he wasn't involved in the CGI stuff, as his green, shirt-ripping alter-ego was created by computer. His contribution was in intimate scenes with one or two other actors on small sets.

"It didn't feel like a huge film to make," he says. "Troy, however, is the exact opposite. The role was a lot more fun, because the Hulk was so introspective and about hiding things. Whereas in this, I'm getting to do everything every boy dreams of doing. So it was nothing but the greatest possible experience, and totally memorable."

Sheffield-born co-star Sean Bean, who plays Odysseus, came to Troy from another major screen project, playing Boromir in The Lord Of The Rings. The new film is out of the ordinary for him as he survives to the end - unlike GoldenEye, Patriot Game and Lord Of The Rings where his characters died.

"Yeah," he says in his Yorkshire accent, "it was quite a surprise for me, to last that long, to be there at the end especially when everyone else was dying."

He finds it hard to compare experiences on Troy and the Rings. "Troy was a much larger scale project in terms of panoramas, the amount of extras involved. We did Lord Of The Rings about four years ago and CGI has advanced quickly.

"It's slightly different, it's a different time, it's set in the past. This was much more physically demanding, perhaps. More violent as well. Of course, there's a lot of violence in the book."

What he did enjoy about making Troy was being part of an ensemble cast. "Brad is so approachable, such a friendly chap," he says. "I suppose when you get a bunch of people around you that you respect, and you're all going in the same direction, you don't get any prima donna behaviour from anyone. So we all got on really well."

Published: 20/05/2004