James Purefoy plays the lead in Solomon Kane, a 17th Century sword and sorcery tale written and directed by Michael J. Bassett, based on the character thought up by Conan creator Robert E. Howard. Towards the end of a long day of interviews about the movie, the Rome star is still enthusiastic – as he points out, it's easy for actors to talk about films they enjoyed working on... Words: Paul Simpson

What attracted you to the project?

Lots of different things! When I was growing up in Somerset I liked to watch Clint Eastwood movies: The Man with No Name films, and the rest of them. It seemed to me that Solomon Kane was cut from the same kind of cloth as that Eastwood character. He expresses himself through action rather than words.

Were you familiar with the character?

No. The Robert E. Howard oeuvre always seemed to me to be associated with muscle bound bodybuilders. As a British actor you think there's never going to be a part in any of those kind of things. But when I spoke to Mike [Bassett], and read all the books and poems and every short story there was, I thought, "British, 17th Century swaggering swordsman – yeah, I can do that!"

On the very first meeting that we had, Mike said, "I do want you to realise that this is going to be the toughest shoot of your life. You are going to get injured. It's going to be unbelievably cold. I hope you're up for that, because if not, say goodbye now."

Mike and I always thought the sword and sorcery genre had been slightly badly served. The films during the 1980s tended to be a bit silly and quite camp. I found it hard to empathise, because I thought, "If you're not taking it seriously, how are you expecting me to take it seriously as an audience member?"

In this we've tried to create a world where everybody takes everything very seriously. We have a lack of one-liners for a very clear purpose: if you can take time out to think up a pithy one-liner, then you're not really taking the situation on board. We wanted the audience to ask, what would you do in this situation? I'm not sure a pithy one-liner is the first thing that comes to mind.

Did you worry about Kane being an antihero?

I don't think you can ever worry about that. An antihero is just as good as a hero, if not better. I think the benefit of having this as an origin tale is that you know where he's coming from. The audience knows who he is. They know he's started off as a bad guy, he's had a run in with the Devil's Reaper and that his soul is going to go to Hell unless he changes his ways.

You can behave in any way you like after that, because the audience knows that what you're doing is coming from a good place. You have to find humanity and common moments that they can latch on to. As long as you're not playing flash, you're playing it real, the audiences understand where you're coming from.

What did you think of the shocking deaths that happen in the film?

We constantly tried to subvert expectation. You think it's going in one direction and then suddenly the story takes a different route. That's what makes this stand out from your usual sword and sorcery fare. You want those ‘whoa!’ moments! They jolt the audience out of a sloth.

Was there a change in atmosphere on set when you reached the more violent scenes?

Yes, because you're dealing with different areas of yourself. Of course you go into a darker place to try to tap into that and realise those moments for an audience. It's not rocket science – it's finding areas in yourself of utter vengeance. The people who've done the bad things need to get their come-uppance.

We didn't want to make it balletic. We didn't want a martial arts feel to the film. We wanted it to be bloody and up-close, unpleasant and difficult, so you really felt that you could be there, and that violence has consequences.

What was the hardest scene to film in terms of injuries?

We had a bunch of injuries. A lot of incredibly talented stuntmen were getting injured all the time by my flailing sword! I got smacked over the head with quite a big sword and had seven stitches put in, but it looked much worse on the day. When you're making a big action picture, and you're talking about up-close, hand-to-hand physical contact, you know you're going to get injured. It's just a question of how badly and how long you have to stay away from the set. You don't go and spend three days recovering; you get stitched up, and back on the pitch – end of story.

We were shooting another big fight where I had to stab someone in the neck, and this stuntguy moved his head at the wrong moment and I stabbed him right through the cheek! He could feel the tip of the sword on his tongue. Suffice to say, they didn't pay for him to go to the most expensive plastic surgeon in the Czech Republic!

What was the most challenging scene?

The moment that keeps coming back is when Kane has to fight his nemesis, the Rider, and I set him on fire. Body burns are very hard to do – they're the Holy Grail of stuntmen.

Vlad was the most amazing swordsman I've ever come across – he had one eye completely covered, and the other had no peripheral vision at all. He couldn't see where the sword was coming in: he just moved as we had learned it. For the final take, it was a top shot, and the camera crew were in the rigging. There was nobody else in the great hall apart from me and him. That's quite unnerving – you've got this man, who is on fire ferociously, coming at you with a broadsword, and won't stop until you finish the fight.

I screwed up. I was meant to go to the left shoulder and I went to the right. He stopped, put his sword down, and out of this ball of flame, a hand came out, wagged a finger, pointed to where I should be cutting him, and then we carried on. I looked at him and thought, "You rock! You are the hardest man I've ever met." To be able to stop, take a pause, tell me where I've gone wrong, while on fire... I've had a few nightmares about that.

Was anything edited out of the final cut that you particularly hated to lose?

I don't think so. Movies need to be a certain length, especially with a film like this. I wouldn't have been happy if it was anything longer than 90 minutes. I want people wanting more, not wanting less. The big final fight, one more scene on the cliffs and it's over. Lovely, and out for a curry. For me, that works.

Solomon Kane is released in UK cinemas on 19 February 2010. Click here to read the review.