Meeting the wrestler formally known as Stone Cold Steve Austin feels like being back at school again, waiting outside the headmaster’s office to be summoned in to talk.

Except we don’t remember our headmaster having the ability to knock our nose to the back of our head with a look. Steve Austin is about our height, but with the muscle mass of a bungalow attached to each arm. Shaking his hand, it soon becomes apparent how brittle we are compared.

Instantly his southern accent and smile are disarming. He has constant stories of the movie biz, his wrestling career as the infamous ‘Stone Cold’ and seems genuinely excited to be working with some top actors at the moment. So we gave Steve a right good grilling…

Hecklerspray: The tagline for Damage is ‘Pain has a new name’ – will future generations hurt themselves and scream ‘Ahhhh, I’m in soooo much Steve Austin?’

SA: Steve Austin: (Laughing) Stranger things have been said!…That has kinda got a good ring to it. I like that! We’re going to hire you.

HS: I am available for PR.

SA: I can live with that! There have been drinking games invented after me. I’ve heard people watch my DVDs as Stone Cold and take a shot every time I say ‘Hell’ or a swear word! You’d get pretty messed up watching the Stone Cold DVD and listening to my language!

HS: Do you feel like Damage will appeal to fans of your wrestling career?

SA: I think they’ll like it! I think they’ll also like it because it is not just a fight movie – there is a dramatic aspect to it. I’m a big fan of violence, but not gratuitous violence. The violence is a means to an end in the movie and we are telling a story. As me in this movie as John Brickner, who just came out of prison for five years for killing a guy I just thought that was a cloud that hung over the life of John in that movie, and that is the way I played it. In trying to redeem myself, I’m getting involved in a game I don’t want to be in! It puts me in a predicament in what is breaking my parole – even though my parole office doesn’t care – and the potential to kill another man, which,I’m damn sure I don’t want to do. I don’t want to be in those shoes but I am.

I think that the fights will satisfy the people, because they are good ones. But the story – hey – it ain’t Gone with the Wind and it’s probably not gonna win an Oscar, but it is a damn good movie that I am proud of and I think Steve Austin fans will like it.

HS: I think what might surprise them as well is that you inject some comedy into it.

SA: We didn’t want to go over the top with that, but there are moments in there. You have to let the audience up a bit, a bit of humour in there to let you take a breath of fresh air!

HS: Was there a type of film you wanted to pay homage to with Damage? What films do you love?

SA: Jeez! Hard Times, The Mechanic, Bullitt, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, Sylvester Stallone stuff! Paul Newman, Cool Hand Luke, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – cool movies like that! Making movies like that, which aren’t really hard-core action movies but just cool movies, is an area I want to get into.

HS: Were the action scenes physically exhausting to film? How much of the stunt work did you do yourself?

SA: All of the fights…I think I did everything! When we were fighting in front of the crowds, we were fighting in silence. Then I told the director ‘Hey man, can we let them yell?’ and when they started yelling my adrenaline shot up! It was almost like being in a mini ring! Now we had a little bit of feedback and it made the action better because we were getting that response. That was a fun thing to do when working on the fight scenes.

It was pretty cold on set and in the one scene where I roll into the vat of oil, but it was a substitute, so it was so cold that every time that me and the guy who played Timmons would hit and block a punch our skin would stick together and when we pulled away it would take a layer of skin! I was like that for nine hours! And the make-up girl kept putting more and more on me. I remember everyone kept saying “Man, you are gonna enjoy that hot shower when you get done”, they were telling me that all day. I remember going to my trailer and they told me “We made sure you’ve got plenty of hot water”. I went to my trailer…cold water! They sent over a bunch of warm towels and I just towelled up in my trailer and rode home in my underwear and a bathrobe. Of course, wouldn’t you know it, they have got a sobriety check around the corner, so the cop pulls us over and I’m sitting there with a robe that is too small and my underwear!

HS: Did he recognise you?

SA: He didn’t even look at me! (Laughs) I was a little disappointed!

HS: You work with an impressive cast and crew on the movie – from Frank Hannah, writer of The Cooler and Walton Goggins from The Shield – being relatively new to movies, was it a great experience being surrounded by all these people?

SA: Absolutely, because you want to be surrounded by the best people you can be. If I am working with someone of my talent I can be as good as I can be. If I’m working with someone like Walton, who is a very good actor, I can raise my game. That puts me in my comfort rather than working on someone on my level. Same on my last movie I just filmed with Adam Beach (on The Stranger), a great actor, which, raises my game.

HS: Coming up, you have The Expendables with Sylvester Stallone, Jet Li and Jason Statham. It is hotly anticipated – what can we expect?

SA: You can expect a lot of action, a lot of great fights, a lot of bullets and a lot of explosions. I think its going to be the coolest movie of 2010! I’m looking forward to seeing it myself. We had a blast making it and I had a blast working with all that star power that is in it.

HS: It’s not like there is any let up with the star power either, everyone is on the same billing.

SA: It was a who’s who of action movie stars. I was new to action but I was really well known as ‘Stone Cold Steve Austin’. So you’ve got all these action guys and you throw Eric Roberts into the mix who is a great, great actor.

HS: What type of movies would you like to explore in the future? Can we assume you’re not going to try and follow Hulk Hogan’s footsteps and make a Mr. Nanny?

SA: You are 100% correct in making that assumption! I wanna do cool movies like the ones I listed before, like the old Bronson, McQueen and Mark Walberg makes some cool movies. Just things that make good sense, I wanna have fun, be challenged and grow as an actor!

Steve Austin stars in Damage which is available to buy on DVD and Blu-ray now. Read our review here and check out the trailer below!

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‘Pain has a new name’ says the tagline, although, perhaps the film shouldn’t be so self-deprecating on the cover art. Damage, after all, does what you expect.

Steve Austin stars as John Brickner – a man released from prison and on a trail for redemption. Unfortunately, redemption for his past act of violence comes at a price – kicking the crap out of everyone. It’s not the most ingenious set-up, and appears to be a surprisingly lowbrow effort from the writer of  The Cooler, but this film is all about walls with teeth, so who cares?

Well Steve does actually, a man who knows how to knock a man down til his face resembles a strawberry McFlurry. Austin wants to bring the man on a mission movie back, being the everyman (that is the 6ft 5inches everyman who can smelt gold with his hands) who tries to battle against adversity.

It’s a noble idea, but one that doesn’t completely connect. Austin doesn’t quite hold the chops yet to handle the drama as well as he does the action. He is aptly supported by The Shield alumni Walton Goggins and Battlestar Galactica’s favourite Doc, Donnelly Rhodes.

As the film continues, Austin manages to inject some humour into the role, and what could have been just another excuse for a brutal exploitation flick actually tries to gun for a bit more heart and feeling. The character gradually connects and lesser actors could have made it feel a lot cornier than it actually is.

It isn’t enough, though – the action strays away from gratuitous face-smashing (although there’s still plenty of it). Meanwhile, the script lacks any real spark and just moves along to its inevitable happy end.

A good effort which has the spirit but doesn’t follow through. The action feels occasionally repetitive and it is a story told many times before, only better. The DVD also lacks wealth, offering a chirpy behind the scenes featuring a few members of backslappers anonymous and nothing else.

This is a film trying too hard and, ultimately, not hitting hard enough. It should prove an entertaining watch for Stone Cold fans and action nuts, but don’t expect it to knock your socks off.

Watch the trailer for Damage here and read our interview with Steve Austin this week on Hecklerspray.

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Following up a stellar career so far – titting around in a perspex box without any food and standing in some ice near a pavement – illusionist David Blaine has revealed details of his next 'stunt.' And also revealed his worries that it may leave him brain damaged.

The stunt itself? He's planning on going a whole 12 days without sleep, thereby setting a world record and possibly impressing someone somewhere in the world who doesn't really have much else to concentrate on.

Announcing his latest idiot-odyssey at the premiere of I Am Legend, Blaine waffled on about how he had been undergoing a strenuous training regime in order to a) cope with the ordeal, and b) presumably stop his tired little grey brain cells from popping like champagne bubbles via the helping hand of 50 push-ups every morning.

Blaine babbled:

"I'm going for the world record. I need to be in good shape for this. And yes. I am worried that this will cause some serious damage. That's why I'm working out so hard."

Further details have yet to be revealed. Obviously the location is going to be an important factor – standing in a room where non-stop recordings of car alarms are blasted out 24 hours a day would surely aid the snoozeless process along nicely, while being strapped to a chair and made to watch repeat viewings of Spider-Man 3 would send even an insomniac caffeine addict to slumberland.

The great irony is, of course, that while Blaine is subjecting himself to a lack of sleep, the rest of the world will be so bored with his attention-grabbing nonsense that everyone will probably suffer a sudden attack of narcolepsy, collapse where they're standing, wake up a fortnight later and have to take Blaine's word for it that he actually went through with the stunt.

Man. He could wing this one easily.

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Blaine Fears New Stunt Will Damage Brain – Breakingnews