Despite the medieval setting there is a very contemporary feel to "A Knight's Tale". Did you ever doubt that this approach would work?

I always thought this was the right way to do the movie. It was only after I got back to the States and kept getting asked "is it going to work?" that I started to think about it a little bit. But to me with most medieval movies the stories are so big you can get lost in them. In this movie the story is so little, it's just William's story, you can relate to him, associate with him, and recognise the world and not be in a museum watching it over a rope.

That comes across in the dance scene, which starts off all staid and medieval - like we've seen many times before - before breaking into David Bowie's "Golden Years".

To me though, that's the movie in a nutshell. The beginning is what it looks like to us, and as it changes into the David Bowie it's what it sounds like to them. The past was once modern and if you were alive in 1372 and it was Friday night and you were going to go to a dance you wouldn't think "it's going to be another one of those old fashioned dances".

Were there any serious injuries during filming?

We had some. One guy broke his leg, there were some broken ribs, and the worst was a stuntman who broke his orbital, the bone around his eye. That was the opening shot in the film. There was no dilemma about including it in the film, because he really wanted us to use the shot. He was gone six weeks, then he came back onto the set.

Read an interview with Aussie hunk and star of the film Heath Ledger.

"A Knight's Tale" is released in UK cinemas on Friday 31st August 2001. Visit the official site.