Fast five with Sullivan Stapleton

1 TOUGH GUY

This model-turned-actor has carved for himself a tough-guy image in his native country, having honed his craft mainly on Australian TV. He also has loyal fans through British-American action drama series Strike Back, where he plays a member of a covert intelligence team fighting terrorism.

2 MORTAL COMBAT

The 36-year-old scored a star-making role in 300: Rise Of An Empire, now showing in cinemas, playing Themistocles, an extremely proud and patriotic Greek general who has to defend his country from invading Persians.

3 FEMME FATALE

Themistocles' nemesis is Artemisia (Eva Green), the beautiful but fearsome femme fatale in charge of the Persian navy. Despite their animosity, both warriors develop a mutual admiration for each other which turns into lust, resulting in an intense sex scene that reportedly left Green bruised.

4 BEST SHAPE

Wearing only a cod piece throughout the entire movie naturally called for some major gym time and a strict diet of measured portions of chicken and broccoli. Stapleton endured four months of demanding physical training to attain what he called his "best shape ever".

5 BAD INJURY

Stapleton missed the 300: Rise Of An Empire premiere in Hollywood last week following an injury that he sustained during his free time while he was in Bangkok filming the fourth season of Strike Back just a week before the event.

FACTFILE

Name: Sullivan Stapleton

Born: June 14, 1977, Melbourne, Australia

Filmography: December Boys (2007), Animal Kingdom (2010), Gangster Squad (2013), 300: Rise Of An Empire (2014)

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