I'll be honest, I never saw myself making a ninja movie, never entertained the idea. I think ninja films can be quite cheesy unless you do them in feudal Japan.

In the film industry, we tend to pick up where others have left off, and Id like to think the influences I picked up from Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Sylvester Stallone and Jean-Claude Van Damme are visible in my work.

Whenever you're looking at new ways to get in shape, first you have to decide what you want. Do you want a more muscular look, or do you want to slim down and appear more toned and ripped? I adapt my training and diet with each role I do, depending on the image I want to convey.

I turned to my mom and said, Im going to be a martial arts movie star. She didnt believe me, and neither did my dad. They both thought I would grow out of it. That it was a phase. I decided then I was going to do it or die trying.

It was weird working with all of them - Stallone, Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, Chuck Norris. There's a sequence in the movie where myself and Jean-Claude Van Damme are running through this airport and there's this silhouette behind this big screen - it smashes, and there you see Schwarzenegger, Stallone, and Bruce Willis all firing their weapons at me and Jean-Claude. It's kind of surreal when you think about it, the three '80s icons of action movies, unloading as many bullets as they could at us. It's pretty crazy.

My first break was in a Hong Kong movie that I shot in China - I was going out there and working as a western stunt man, if you like, but at the same time in England I was working in daytime soap stuff. Eventually I put the two together.

I'll be honest, I never saw myself making a ninja movie, never entertained the idea. I think ninja films can be quite cheesy unless you do them in feudal Japan.