On what attracts him to a project and Jumper especially.

When I read a script, it’s really character and story that I’m analysing, and ideally, it’s a character that I haven’t played before, and it gives me a chance to try to explore something new, and a story that I’m excited by that I’d want to go and see as a movie-going audience member. So, when I read Jumper it appealed to me on both those levels; it’s a really unique character, and a really interesting journey for David Rice, and conceptually, teleportation is just very cool.

On his character in the film.

He’s sort of your run-of-the mill, average all-American, easy-going guy. He then is sort of forced into becoming this reluctant hero, and that transformation is one that he resists all the while. He doesn’t want this responsibility, he doesn’t want to fight any war. He just wants to be left alone for the most part. So the events around him force him to grow up a bit and stop running away from all his problems because it’s so easy for him, that’s his super power, he has the ability to run away better than anybody else.

On how his character discovers his powers.

He’s sort of caught in an unusual predicament, he falls through the ice on a river bed, and is trapped in the rushing current, and out of desperation, he’s fighting and trying to figure out what he’s going to do, and then all of a sudden, he’s in the public library and doesn’t know how he got there, or what he heck happened, and he doesn’t know if he just dreamt the whole thing. And then it’s a process of it happening again and again to him, then he realises that’s it actually an ability that he’s developed, and that’s how he discovers that he can teleport.

On the role of ‘Jumping’.

There are rules to teleportation, to ‘Jumping’. You have to, one, have been there before, or have it within eyesight. You can’t just jump to someplace that you’ve seen a picture of, or someplace that you’ve seen on TV; you have to have either been there or see it. Outside of that, there are no rules.

On the physical challenge of the role.

They put me in the boxing gym, trying to teach me how to fight, I had to take scuba diving lessons because there is a whole under water portion to the movie. For the most part, I just had to prepare myself for the beating that I was about to take for the next half a year. Everyday I would go to work and something would go wrong with my character attempting to jump somewhere or running into a character that he wasn’t hoping to run into. He would get either beat up or tossed around, and everyday I went home with a new bruise, and with a little bit of satisfaction as well. I can’t say I didn’t enjoy it, but they definitely put us through the gauntlet.

On shooting with multiple ‘Davids’ and ‘Griffins’.

Doug’s approach to how he was going to film the actual jump itself, sometimes involved having multiple versions of the same character, so for me, sometimes I would go to set and there would two or three other people dressed exactly like me, which was a bit weird at first. But, it meant that Doug, in one take, could film me in one place, doing one thing, and then when I go to jump, he can switch pan across to a different version of the same character on his back walking away, and a scene was shot.

On shooting all over the world.

Where we shot the movie was great on both levels, in that, we did a lot of our filming in Toronto, which is where I’m from, so I got to be close to home, which was nice. Then, because of the teleportation aspect of the story, we were travelling all over the world shooting in the actual locations that these characters go to. So we went from Tokyo to Rome to Paris to Mexico, and that’s just so far.

On director Doug Liman and his desire to work with him.

Doug Liman really sparked my interest, he’s a director that I think everyone has great respect for. He makes great films and is considered to be a very creative guy, so I was really thrilled at the prospect of working with him, and the reality of it was just a hundred-fold. He was a real pleasure, and I think one of the few people that could have actually told this story, if not the only one.