Click here to see screen captures from the interview!

Jay Leno: Congratulations!

Eric Bana: Thanks, Jay.

Jay: I know you've been working - now when did you finish this movie?

Eric: Finished the movie, um, a couple of days before Christmas.

Jay: Oh, okay.

Eric: Yeah, I've been really, really busy, I've been flat-out ever since - I've been sitting on my butt back home in Australia... yeah you gotta do that.

Jay: So what are you doing, are you still racing cars?

Eric: Still! Yeah, yeah, I've been at home, doing the sort of things that you can't do when you're on a production, like you know, riding my bikes, racing the cars -

Jay: Now, what bikes to you have?

Eric: I've got a couple of Ducatis and um, I race muscle cars and Porsches as well. Proper stuff, not celebrity stuff, you know that.

Jay: Yeah, proper racing. Right, right. So you don't do celebrity racing.

Eric: Celebrity Grand Prix, no, no, no.

Jay: Like I did that once - I beat Helen Hays.

[audience laughs]

Eric: Now that's, that's a feather in your cap.

Jay: I cut off Helen Hays at a corner and sent her right into the wall.

Eric: All right!

Jay: Well, now tell me about that - you say they won't let you do that when you're doing a movie?

Eric: Well, yeah. You know in a movie, they provide you with a driver, and if you're a driver - if you're someone who likes to drive every day - that just kills you, you know, and I've had a few... I've had a few shockers.

Jay: Yeah.

Eric: I had a guy in Morocco, who um, he actually couldn't drive.

Jay: [laughs] Why would he be a driver?

Eric: I don't know. But he actually didn't know how to drive. So I spent like, six months teaching him how to drive. He'd drive out of the hotel, and I'd say: "That's enough now. I'm gonna drive to the location and you can hop back in. And let's try first gear instead of third." And one day he says to me [in a thick accent and with hilarious hand guestures]: "Eric, um, Mister Bana, umm, maybe where you're from you's driving in first gear, but they teaching us here, third gear for starting."

[audience laughs]

Jay: Why?

Eric: [bounces up and down in his chair] I liked that kind of like, hop that you get when you're [inaudible].

[audience laughs]

Jay: Did you get your racing licence? Do you have that?

Eric: I've had that for a long time, yeah, yeah.

Jay: Oh! Cool, cool. Now is that a tough test?

Eric: No, it's not too bad, actually.

Jay: But when you come down, here comes - [in low voice] "Hey, boy..." Did the other guys give you a hard time?

Eric: Yeah, at first, at first, and then when you don't finish last they just go quiet, which is really nice.

Jay: Yeah, 'cause they expect you to be like [in high, shrill voice with wild arm movements] "Oooh, the car's going to fast!"

Eric: [In a nervous voice with arm movements] I don't know what I'm doing! Oooo! What's this stick shift for? What does that do?

Jay: So who taught you to drive?

Eric: My dad. My dad let me loose, uh, when I was about six in the car park of the supermarket -

Jay: And you were six?

Eric: Yeah. That's the legal age back in Australia.

Jay: Six?

Eric: Yeah.

[audience laughs]

Eric: Just put some shopping trolleys out, and just you know, a few maneuvers. Cool dad.

Jay: Ah, yeah, yeah! Now, you have a young son, right? How old is he?

Eric: He's four and a half. I've got one of each - I've got a little girl, Sophie, who's two - just turned two. And my little boy, Klaus, is four and a half.

Jay: Now, does he like cars? Is he a car guy?

Eric: I wish. I wish. Nothing. No interest whatsoever. [inaudible] the bikes, the cars. He's always interested in the Wiggles, and -

Jay: What's the Wiggles?

Eric: The Wiggles. Come on, they're like, bigger than the Beatles, you know. The Wiggles, the Australian kids act. You know, [sings, with hand and finger guestures] "Hot Potato, Hot Potato, Mash..."

Jay: Oh, of course. [joins in with hand guestures] Who doesn't know "Hot Potato, Hot Potato?" Oh yeah.

[audience cheers and laughs]

Eric: We've got some parents in the audience - I know where I'm coming from. Um, the Wiggles, and he likes reenacting scenes from "The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe." That's basically his life.

Jay: You starting to worry about the boy?

Eric: Yeah, yeah. Very much so.

[audience laughs]

Jay: [snickers]

Eric: But he's very intense about it. He'll like, do a little show, and he sets up this little thing at home and he performs a scene and he says, "Don't watch me when I'm offstage." And he has this imaginary offstage - it's very peculiar. Yeah.

Jay: [nods silently]

Eric: But I know where he gets it from.

Jay: Yeah, I can't imagine. Now what were you like as a kid? Were you very theatrical as a child at all?

Eric: I wasn't, I wasn't so much theatrical. I used to do impressions, as you know, as a kid, just to get myself out of trouble, and so I wouldn't get the strap at school or the cane. And that worked, you know - I would do like, teachers and so forth and I'd get myself out of detention. It was really, really handy.

Jay: Can you do an impression of anybody? Like in the film?

Eric: Like in the film? Well, um, Orlando Bloom?

Jay: You can do Orlando Bloom?

Eric: Yeah. You girls know Orlando Bloom, right? From "Lord of the Rings" -

[audience cheers - mainly female]

Eric: Hot young thing, Orlando Bloom, you know. [hilarious impression, complete with eyebrow movements, hand guestures, continuous body movement, and a British accent] "Well, Orlando - well he couldn't be here tonight, but he's just like, spewing(?) - I mean, he'd love to be here, Jay, you know like, he's so excited about [inaudible] in Morocco - "

[audience screams with laughter]

Eric: " - I mean, you know mate, it was unbelievable. I was leaving New Zealand, right? I was leaving New Zealand after 'Lord of the Rings' and they had, like, my head on the back of a plane, like a painting of my head, on the back of an Air New Zealand plane - I was like, I couldn't believe it, you know!"

[audience cheers]

Jay: [laughing] Can you do... real quick, before we have to take a break, can you do Brad Pitt?

Eric: Ohhh. Ah, okay. Could get me in trouble - what the hell. [impression of Brad, complete with low voice, body movements, and an American accent] "Hey, Bana, so um... the fight scene man, I'm telling ya' - it has to be unbelievable - "

[Jay and the audience begin to laugh]

Eric: " - no, no, no, Jay, no, no, come on, I'm like, I'm like, serious. This has to be good, Bana, it has..." [pauses]

[audience cracks up]

Eric: "...you know?"

Jay: That's very good, very good!

[audience applauds]

Jay: We'll be right back, with Eric Bana, right after this!

[commercial break]

Jay: Welcome back - talking with Eric Bana, stars in "Troy." Now this is a huge, huge movie. Hopefully I'm going to see this - sorry I haven't had the chance to see it yet - I was away this weekend.

Eric: I can forgive you, Jay. No one else.

Jay: All right. But obviously it's like an epic - it's an epic film. How did you get cast? Did they find you, did you audition for this? How does that process work?

Eric: It was, um... Brad and I had met and spoken about, likejust loosely, wouldn't it be great to find something to do together? And then just by huge stroke of luck, this came up. And then he was in, and then Wolfgang Peterson, our wonderful director, wanted to meet with me. I read the script and I went to see him, and said, [impersonates Wolfgang, with a thick German accent] "So Eric, you've read the script. Which character would you like to play?" And I said, you know, it's kind of like a deck of cards - you've only got one shot -

Jay: Right.

Eric: And I said, "Hector." And he went [German accent] "Whew." And I said "Why?" And he said [German accent] "Lucky for you, because Brad wants to play Achilles!"

[audience laughs]

Jay: Oh! Now this director. It sounds like he was on "Hogan's Heroes."

Eric: Yeah, he was, yeah - he had a helmet on...

Jay: [mumbles in an accent] Yeah, yeah! Hector! Yeah!

[audience laughs]

Eric: [German accent] I know nah-ssing Jay!

Jay: You're not gonna have any friends left by the time you're outta here!

Eric: Well, what the hell, you know.

Jay: Now what if you'd said you'd want to play Achilles? What would you do then?

Eric: Oh, he would have just said, [German accent] "You are not playing Achilles."

Jay: Oh.

Eric: He's a great director. He has this really cool way of directing. He like, describes the scene to you, and then you go and do the scene. He'll also talk to you during the scene. It's like, Orlando and I had this moment - he's my brother, Orlando Bloom, Paris, I play Hector - and we're riding out our horses through the gates of Troy and we have to meet a hundred-thousand Greeks. And he's off-camera, talking about it. he's like, [German accent] "Okay. So at first, there's just dust. And then, there's the sound of a hundred-thousand Greeks. I don't know what that sounds like. We'll put that in later..."

[audience laughs]

Eric: "...and then at some point, Achilles is going to come, and he's going to say, 'Hector! Where are you?' Here he comes. Achilles, on his chariot. Is he coming for lunch? Or is he coming for Hector?" And I'm sitting on my horse with Orlando, and I just want to laugh now, you know, because he's like, I can't be serious when you're saying this stuff to me.

Jay: [laughs] He's got a bullhorn? Is he off somewhere?

Eric: No, he's just off to the side, behind the horses, which is always a worry, you know, working on horses. We had an assistant director who was not very good around horses. He used to yell and scream, and I'd say, "Jerry, would you do me a favor. You don't have to yell - just wave, just wave - and I'll go on action." So he says, [in an accent] "Okay, no problem. Okay, roll speed, and okay... [hand wave] ... [yells] BACKLINE ACTION!"

[audience laughs]

Jay: Now, you have this big fight scene with Brad Pitt. Did you have to train for that? Was that tough? Looks like it goes on and on.

Eric: Yeah, it's a huge scene. Brad and I, we really, really trained hard for that. We trained like, literally for about nine months every day just for that fight scene, and we just absolutely went for it. We beat the crap out of each other, we really did.

Jay: Is it choreagraphed, like, sort of like, you know, like big-time wrestling, that kind of deal, where you come in? Or did you just start fighting and they film it? I mean, what do you do?

Eric: [laughs] That would have been more fun! That would be more fun.

Jay: Yeah, yeah. "And step one-two and stab and punch..." I mean, is it like that?

Eric: [laughs] That's very good!

[audience laughs]

Jay: "And step one-two and stab and punch."

Eric: Um, yeah, it is choreagraphed, but you've gotta be careful, because you notice in the fighting style in this film, every shot is like a death shot. So it's not like, [imitates simple swordplay] 'ching, ching, ching' - it's like, the sword is now coming up for your head, the sword is now coming for your throat. So, it is choreagraphed, but you have to look after each other, because if you're off by like a few inches, you really hurt yourself, and we did. Occasionally, you're off, and you've gotta make adjustments. But it is the best fun, I'm telling you, doing a movie like that, where you've got great drama, and you go off the next day and you've gotta fight someone, and it's just the best fun.

Jay: Let's take a look. Here's a scene from "Troy." Is this the fight scene? Here we go.

Eric: This is just before I fight Achilles.

Jay: [German accent] Hector!

[Film slip plays from "Troy"]

[audience applauds and cheers]

Jay: Cool! "Troy" - it opens May 14th. Eric, always a pleasure! Be right back with Bob Woodward, right after this.

[end of interview]