Peter is starring in two great upcoming projects, James Cameron‘s Avatar and Spartacus: Blood and Sand.

In my exclusive interview I did at this summers Comic-Con, we talk about his Spartacus character (Doctore), working with green screens and he even offers up some advice to actors.

Is this your first Comic Con?
This is my first Comic Con. I’ve done some sci-fi fantasy. I did 300, etc., but I’ve not really attended, usually because I’m working somewhere else at the time.  This time around Rob [Tapert - Executive Producer of Spartacus] and the guys actually flew me back for this.

Tell me about your character.
I get to play a character called Doctore on Spartacus, and Doctore is the gladiator trainer.  And it’s his job fundamentally to bring up the up and coming new gladiators and also to prepare sort of the well-schooled gladiators for each and every fight.  And you know what’s fascinating about doing this is you sort of get to see how Roman society worked way back when, I think 73 B.C.  And the fact that these stadiums could house 80,000 people, would come in and watch these fights.  Physically.  They didn’t have pay-per-view.  They had to show up.

I think you guys shot in New Zealand, right?
Yeah and we still are.  This is halfway.

Kind of on a little break?
Yeah, we do sort of little breaks where we come and introduce the show to everybody.  And we’re in Auckland and we have a crew that is really familiar with big feature work.  Head of makeup, Jenna Kens, has done a number of things, The Grudge. She did Zena of course way back when.  Done a number of quite successful shows.  Similarly for wardrobe and the stunts.  Our stunts are really phenomenal.  I think they do Narnia, you know, some of the guys worked on Lord of the Rings, so these are really good blood and sandals guys.

How do you get mentally and physically prepared because this is a long shoot, right?
Yeah, it is a long shoot.  It’s a change entirely of your year when you’re away for 8 months working.  But it’s the job I love to do.  And it’s a great environment to do it in.  So, yes, I’m not at home, but I’m exploring the world.  I’m in New Zealand, which is just beautiful.

Have you gotten a chance to jump off that tower?
I’ve watched many people do it, but thank God – (laughter) I think our producers would be – I think they have enough with us rolling around on the ground and all the stunts that we do, that they probably not going to let us do any jumping.

Now are you doing your own stunts or you try to as much as you can?
Yeah, at this point.  You know in my particular character’s case, yes I do everything myself.  As I say, they’re so talented, they’ve actually designed things that we can actually do that are really exciting and sort of visually impressive, so yeah.

Going into this did you have any sort of say in your character, the look of your character, what your character says?
I was very fortunate.  This was a project that Steve DeKnight and Rob Tapert picked me for.

Oh wow, that’s gotta be great.  You just kind of walk to the mailbox and see the script.
Well, your managers call you and say here’s what we want.  And hey, by the way, it’s Rob Tapert, who let’s face it is one of the more successful guys you could want to work for.

Hard to say no.
Absolutely.  It’s do this or do a cop show.  What would you prefer?  And this is just so brilliant.  So there’s that.  So what it meant was that there was already some pre-thought to what the character would be like, and so I don’t, there wasn’t any real need to collaborate on the look or any of that.  They had that really well-designed.  I think as you see from the clip and when you see the picture it’s so beautifully shot.

It looks amazing.
People are gonna get a movie every week.  And there’s beautiful phantom moments where there’s several thousand frames per second and you’ll see and it’s brilliantly choreographed.

Oh I’m sure (laughter).  Are you guys shooting a lot of green screen?
Yeah, the set managers have built most of the environment surrounded by green screen to create the atmosphere and on occasion of course with special effects definitely on green screen.  So it’s a combination of built set and green screen.  Very graphic novel-esque.  And also vividly colorful in the fact that it’s really taking everybody on a ride to a whole different time period.

Now you’ve obviously done green screen before.  Now does it get easier?
I think the familiarity allows you to sort of not think about it, but I do really, really think that you know it’s kind of part of the job to just enter your story and go for it.  We’ve got brilliant DPs and sort of camera people who capture the work, so I tend not to notice.  I really don’t notice.  It’s sort of you know, we’ve got a story to do.  Your other character’s in front of you, you interact, and that’s what we do.  And so the environment often doesn’t really impact.  If anything, because they’ve built some of the set, this is actually one of the more fun ones to work on because it’s sort of you stand in the gladiator arena, and it just, you feel it.  You’re in the sand, and you’re going oh my goodness, I mean, it’s pretty cool.  I really like doing this.

Do you still get nerves on the first day of shooting?
Absolutely!   I mean, and it’s also part of the fun of it is the butterflies that you always get just before action.  And you sort of, you’re prepped, you’re ready to go, you know the arc, you know where you’re going, and you’re in costume and there’s still a sense of like (takes deep breath) OKAY.  But I’m working with Andy Whitfield, the lead, who’s brilliant.  And John Hannah, who’s just a fantastic guy to work with.  And Lucy [Lawless] keeps us all loose, and you know, it’s a great environment to be working in.

When you’re not working, are you training acting-wise, or what’s your downtime like?
Well, truthfully, there’s not a lot of downtime.  There hasn’t been a lot on this particular environment.  One of the greatest experiences for an actor I think is working.  The truth of it is being so fortunate to get to perform I really appreciate the fact that I’m actually getting to do this thing on a day-to-day basis.  And for the past four months I’ve done it 5 days a week.  And so, the downtime is often in the sort of prepping and getting ready and then in studying the choreography for the next you know, and so there’s always work.  And when all that is completed, then I get a chance to get into a car and explore New Zealand a bit.  And that’s how I’ve been living (laughter).

Do you have any advice for actors?
Honestly I think that if, I don’t know if it’s advice as much as a learning, I think it’s really important to love what you do.  And ultimately in every step, I find myself checking and realizing, one, of course I’m so grateful to work, but just realizing I’m working at something I really enjoy doing.  And I think if anything just keep that joy.  Keep the joy of acting.  It’s more useful than learning the business or getting very clever, I think just love acting.

Check out my interview with his Spartacus: Blood and Sand co-star Erin Cummins!

I couldn’t ask questions but that was fine… it’s Uma Thurman. How could I say no?

I edited down the interview to things dealing with this website.. and to the parts where her cell phone didn’t cut out.

In an earlier conversation that we all had with Catherine she told us that she was really moved, moved to tears actually, watching one scene in particular.  It was you and Anthony Edwards sitting in a car towards the end of the film.  And she said that it was actually her favorite scene.  And we were just wondering if you could share anything about what was going on in that scene, what was it for you to act that scene, because it obviously made a real impression on her?
It’s a scene where I guess in a way the character of Eliza, which Catherine wrote, basically is explaining why she, what the source of her unhappiness is, and how she is basically is getting lost in the minutia of her domestic life, has lost herself in that service and has lost a sense of purpose.

I think something obviously drew you to motherhood and specifically Eliza’s character.  So, I’m wondering what do you feel is authentic about how motherhood is portrayed in the movie and how will we, meaning audiences, really be able to relate to that?
I think first of all, you know, this is a story where the mother is actually central to the experience, where she is the one being seen through her actions.  She’s not there to focus your attention in a role of how the mother relates to the person of interest who is either a man or a child.  You kind of have, you know, mothers are often used in narrative.  Filling in the blanks, per se, about another character, but it’s not really about them, themselves.  And I just think, you know, Catherine’s character was so honest,  you know, I mean she’s someone who’s chosen to be a stay-at-home mother and yet she’s struggling with that decision.  And feels fulfilled but at the same time compromised in a way at times by you know being in total baby land and not stimulating other sides of herself that are obviously important.  And I like that she has flaws, you know, I like that she has anger issues and yet she still loves her kids.  She’s funny and charming and she’s just sort of real.

Most movies that I think we’ve seen usually sort of take place over like a longer time span.  Sort of days or weeks and this particular movie takes place in one day.  And I’m wondering as an actress in the movie how it sort of felt doing the same almost like the same scene over and over again. Did you get a sense of déjà vu?
Oh well you know, actually in a way it’s very tricky because you can really get kind of confused as to where you are.  It’s like, you can easily get kind of lost in it because you seem to be in the same clothing and it’s the same day, but time is going by.  Your location, you just kind of sew it together it so it feels like you have come from one place to the other.  That just requires a lot of kind of focus and being aware of the piece.  I’ve seen a couple movies that are a character study that happens over one day.  I’ve often liked them very much.  Like After Hours, which Martin Scorsese did.  It’s kind of a neat device because one day of someone’s life in a way, not about them necessarily collecting the Nobel Prize, but actually just one real normal day.  It’s an amazing way to see a person’s character just kind of broken open, and I found it kind of tricky and fun.

You have two kids, so my question is how has having children made you a better actress?
Well, it changed me completely.  I think we all know you’re not ever the same before and after you have children.  It’s hard to say, I mean, I guess when I do get to work, I feel so appreciative of it because I don’t get to do it all the time.  So, it’s just sort of made much more clear lines between my work and my life.  But I also deeply appreciate my work.

What was the most surprising thing for you while filming Motherhood?
I think I was surprised what wonderful actors the children who played my children were and how great it was to act with them.  I’ve never really played a realistic mom before and having the chance to work with those kids on such a sort of funny and wonderful and warm script, it was, that was probably the nicest aspect.

While preparing for the role of Eliza did you research blogs and if so did you find any that you became a fan of?
You know, I didn’t.  I didn’t get into the blogging world.  I feel a little guilty about it, and I apologize.  There’s still time.  You know, I didn’t.  I didn’t get a chance to.  I feel so badly telling you that.

What is your favorite thing about filming in New York and what is your least favorite thing?
My favorite thing is how close it is to home.  My least favorite thing is how noisy it is.  That’s probably the biggest challenge is the sound challenge, you know?