Because I had the great good fortune to have a brilliant stunt double, he was called Michael Byrne, who did all the really serious work. I had to learn the moves, so that they could cut away and the close-ups looked convincing and so on, but all the skill really was Michael?s and not mine. And indeed in that fight Sam Jackson, who was also very good and worked very hard, and was very, very patient with me. The day we did that fight I also had to do the scene at the opera so it was a very, very busy day.

And it?s all extraordinary when you?re doing these movies, you think ?My god, this doesn?t come out for two years! Maybe we can do it tomorrow!? But no, the pressure is always to get as much done as you can, for financial reasons, in the course of the period that you?re there. But that also made it kind of exciting, really, because you don?t have too much time to stop, to think and work out the detail. And so you?re pushed back on your instincts and as an actor I always really like that because I think, with any luck, that?s where the best acting can come from.