Theo James has said he doesn’t mind being left battered and bruised by his Insurgent role.
The 30-year-old actor, who reprises his role as Tobias ‘Four’ Eaton in the sequel to Divergent, was even knocked out during a train scene.
James said “I got punched in the face a couple of times accidentally. Jonny Weston, in the train sequence, clipped me a couple of times but it makes it all the more fun. We got to do things that we were able to do in the first movie…. you got to push the envelope a little bit more.
But he said of his bruises: “It’s weirdly nice to have them because being an actor is fairly flouncy in some ways, so to finish work and feel like you’ve earned it physically is a good feeling.”
Theo – who reunites with co-star Shailene Woodley (Beatrice ‘Tris’ Prior) for Insurgent – gets his thrills from doing the action scenes.
“It’s fun. I got to do everything actually because I mainly beat people up, so it was good. I always enjoy that kind of stuff, it’s always fun,” he said.
“You sit around and wait for quite a long time on set so it’s good to be physically active.
“Also, doing the stunts and that kind of thing informs your character a bit, and if you’re playing someone who is physically active, then it makes sense to do everything if you can, because they are performance choices in itself. You don’t want to let somebody else do them.”
The Divergent films have turned Theo, who previously appeared in The Inbetweeners Movie, Underworld: Awakening and Woody Allen’s You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger, into a pin-up.
“I get more free jeans,” he joked about his new-found status.
“It has changed in some ways, but I’m a firm believer in if you live the life you lived before, then nothing needs to change in a meteoric way. But there are probably certain things I would avoid doing that I did before.”
He added: “Otherwise, it’s all positive. Having people enjoy films like these is a great thing, especially the way people invest in them.”
Insurgent, which also stars Naomi Watts, Kate Winslet and Octavia Spencer, opens in cinemas on March 20.
