Cuba Gooding Jnr

MAN OF HONOUR

"The longest time I spent in the suit was 14, 15 hours," he grimaces. "We had to shoot this scene in one day in this courtroom in Portland, so I stayed in it, propped up against a wall. Talk about miserable. I'm just sitting there in hell. The sweat that you see in that scene is for real," he adds with a laugh.

Gooding Jr, 33, also had to undertake some pretty gruelling deep-sea diving for the shoot. "It was strenuous and physically demanding," he recalls. "We went through some diving school training and it still doesn't prepare you to get in the actual suit. We did a month of tank work and they made the water 80 degrees. They were like 'see it won't be cold'.

Well it became an oven in there. It took roughly 45 minutes to get in the suit and another 45 minutes to get out, so you weren't going anywhere any time quickly. If I was claustrophobic I would never have been able to do this movie."

Despite the gruelling schedule Gooding Jr opted to go back in the water again for his next role in the much talked about Pearl Harbour. In the big budget movie he plays another Navy hero, Dory Miller.

"He was the first black to receive a Naval Cross," explains Gooding Jr. "He was a steward in a segregated Navy. They didn't allow blacks to carry any guns and then when the attack happened he jumped on one of the guns and took down a couple of the planes to protect his fellow shipmates."

Part of the reason he takes on the role of real life heroes, Gooding Jr explains, is for the sake of his two sons, Spencer and Mason.

"They're four and six and with them growing up I'm trying to instil a sense of pride in who they are and this is one way to show them here are African Americans who did so much for black history."

It's Gooding Jr's love for his wife, schoolteacher Sara and his boys, which he says has kept his feet firmly on the ground since his Oscar win.

"I know sooner or later I have to stop the focus on my career and start focusing on what my family wants to do. If my kids say they wanna be in the business, then I want to help them. It's not about me any more. I just want to do my work and enjoy the down time. I never in my career have enjoyed the down time, down time to me used to mean 'Oh God I'm unemployed'."

There's little chance of that happening again. As well as further film projects Gooding Jr is in the process of starting his own production company and plans to try his hand at directing too. In the past he has said he wants to be the first black studio head.

"I've been in a lot of script development lately and a lot of the last few projects they've accepted my input when it come to the screenplays, so it makes me feel like I'm ready to make that step," he explains.