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"Since his final appearance as Hollyoaks&amp;#039; Craig Dean in November 2008, 27-year-old actor Guy Burnet moved stateside in a bid to pursue his acting dream - to make it on the silver screen. Now based in Los Angeles, California, Guy&amp;#039;s filmography is growing by the year, having recently worked on movie projects with Sean Bean, Sienna Miller and Christian Slater, among others. Digital Spy recently caught up with Guy to learn more about working life on the West Coast and discover what else is in the works for 2011.  What spurred you to make your move to LA? &amp;quot;Trying to do bits and bobs in the UK work-wise was going okay but they weren&amp;#039;t necessarily what I wanted to do with my career. An ambition of mine was to be in film and the biggest opportunities you can get are over in Los Angeles. And going back to school and studying acting and creative writing was something I wanted to explore, too.  &amp;quot;Work was there for me in the UK, but it was very limited. I&amp;#039;d been working on a TV show for about five years but a lot of people weren&amp;#039;t willing to give me the chance to progress. I was offered a lot of money to be on reality shows and a couple of other TV programmes but it wasn&amp;#039;t where I wanted to go in my life. When I initially made the small move over to the US to test the waters, I saw more opportunity there than what I did in the UK, so had to go with it. I don&amp;#039;t want to be blas\u00E9 about anything but I wanted to focus on what I wanted to do in the long run. If it worked out, then great. But if not, I could at least say &amp;#039;I did it my way&amp;#039;.  &amp;quot;I never intentionally went out there to make friends, go on nights out or to network, as I was happy to be doing my own thing and find my own feet - I&amp;#039;m pretty content with being a loner, so going over there was not that scary. I quickly realised that it&amp;#039;d take a bit of time and I had to have a certain work ethic for things to start happening. I ended up making really good friends with a British director called Adam Mason who I started writing with. A lot of the first smaller opportunities came through him, like the film Luster and Pig.&amp;quot;  How did your American TV debut in Sonny With A Chance come about? &amp;quot;I got down to the wire for the role of Paul McCartney in this huge-budget Beatles project. It never went ahead but it got me noticed in the industry. After that, I signed with a management company and Sonny With A Chance came up. I was a complete nutter in the casting, didn&amp;#039;t hear anything for about a month but got a call to go back and landed the part. It was an incredible opportunity because it&amp;#039;s filmed in front of a live studio audience, reacting to everything. It was a lot of fun. Demi Lovato is the sweetest and a lovely girl to work with. It gave me a platform to be completely irreverent and over the top.&amp;quot;  Your movie break came next in Age of Heroes with Sean Bean and Danny Dyer\u2026 &amp;quot;Yeah, I sent in an audition tape and ended up meeting with the fantastic Adrian Vitoria who was directing the project and he cast me as this young sniper called Riley. It&amp;#039;s all about this elite group of people called &amp;#039;30 Commando&amp;#039; and it tracks the birth of the British Secret Service. We were shooting in Norway in the middle of nowhere, so it was great to get to know everyone. I learned so much from Sean about how to adapt to acting for 35mm film. And Danny was so down to earth and funny. Even though it&amp;#039;s a relatively smallish role, Adrian and I are collaborating again and they are also shooting a sequel this year.&amp;quot;  How fit did you have to be for the role? &amp;quot;I knew I&amp;#039;d have to do a lot of training work, so I upped the time I worked out each week. I box anyway so I just started doing a lot more sparring and cardio. I lost quite a bit of weight for the part, too, after researching about Commandos at the time - they were highly fit but small and skinny. They also sent us to spend time with the Royal Marines\u2026 that was the biggest eye opener ever. The stories they can tell and the intense training they do, all while keeping a smile on their faces - it was just so humbling to be around them.&amp;quot;  Then Rites of Passage came along with Stephen Dorff and Christian Slater\u2026 &amp;quot;Yeah, it&amp;#039;s written and directed by Point Break and Patriot Games writer Peter Iliff. The guy I play is called Mojo - this stoner character who&amp;#039;s a down-and-out at Santa Barbara University. I auditioned for it as an American but when I went to see him at his house, I explained that every time I read Mojo&amp;#039;s lines, I heard him as an English character. He wasn&amp;#039;t sure if it would work but when I read through it all, it was like an epiphany for him - he said I was absolutely right that Mojo was an English student studying abroad. From there, the character developed into what he became. The film itself is about five youngsters on a journey of self-discovery and it develops into a thriller set in an Indian reserve. It was a real pleasure to work on and grew close to the cast and crew.&amp;quot;  Then your most recent project is called The Two Jacks with Sienna Miller and Jacqueline Bisset\u2026 &amp;quot;While I was filming Rites of Passage, I&amp;#039;d heard that Bernard Rose had a project on the go based on Leo Tolstoy&amp;#039;s short story &amp;#039;The Two Hussars&amp;#039;. It&amp;#039;s about two film directors in different Hollywood eras and how behaviours have changed. I managed to get a meeting with the director and producer, which ended up being a 45-minute improvisation session. I didn&amp;#039;t expect to get the role at all but after wrapping on Rites of Passage, I got the call to say I&amp;#039;d be starting two days later! I play an American young writer called Paul. As most of it was improvised and to keep the accent, I stayed in character for the whole time I was filming, even out of work. I think my friends were getting pretty sick of me by the end of it!&amp;quot;  What was the most surreal moment of all three shoots? &amp;quot;On the first day of filming Rites of Passage, I was introduced to Christian Slater and as I shook his hand, something hit me\u2026 I remembered to three years before in Liverpool while I was shooting Hollyoaks. I was up all night with the flu and somebody had given me True Romance. I was completely blown away by the film that I watched it twice in a row. Seven the next morning, I went into Hollyoaks in my dressing gown to see one of the producers for a meeting to let them know I&amp;#039;d be leaving. They couldn&amp;#039;t understand why I&amp;#039;d done such a U-turn overnight but I explained that watching True Romance made me realise that I wanted to be in American cinema. So three years down the line, I&amp;#039;m working with Christian Slater\u2026 it was such a bizarre moment.&amp;quot; Would you ever consider shows like House, Dexter or Damages? &amp;quot;They&amp;#039;re all great shows and I&amp;#039;d love to be part of them. I adored the The Wire and The Sopranos but two favourites of mine at the moment are Boardwalk Empire - having just worked with Jack Huston I can&amp;#039;t wait for the second season - and Eastbound &amp;amp; Down is brilliant.&amp;quot;   Rumour has it that you&amp;#039;re linked to the much-anticipated role of Klaus in The Vampire Diaries\u2026 &amp;quot;How do you know that?! You&amp;#039;ve done your research... I don&amp;#039;t know how much I&amp;#039;m allowed to talk about it, but I have been up for it, yeah\u2026 It&amp;#039;s a great part and it would be a lot of fun to do. I&amp;#039;m keeping my fingers crossed\u2026&amp;quot; You&amp;#039;ve been romantically linked with Jessica Lowndes\u2026 &amp;quot;I don&amp;#039;t really talk about my private life. She&amp;#039;s an amazing person, who&amp;#039;s wonderfully gifted and talented.&amp;quot;  So you&amp;#039;re single, then? What do you look for in an ideal woman? &amp;quot;Yeah, I&amp;#039;m currently unattached - I never look for anything specific but I guess the traits that I find attractive are someone cool, passionate, loyal and has an irreverent sense of humour.&amp;quot;  Do you still speak to any of the Hollyoaks cast? &amp;quot;Sometimes - but it&amp;#039;s difficult when you&amp;#039;re halfway around the world! I have kept in touch with Nick Pickard, Jimmy McKenna and Chris Fountain, though. Occasionally I&amp;#039;ll speak to some of the girls when I can, too.&amp;quot; Would you ever consider a part in EastEnders if your old boss Bryan [Kirkwood] called you up? &amp;quot;[Laughs] Funny you should say that\u2026 I have a great deal of respect for Bryan as a person and a producer, so I&amp;#039;d never say never but it would be dependent on the part and the right timing.&amp;quot;  You&amp;#039;ve done well with your boxing documentaries. Is directing something you&amp;#039;re looking to pursue further? &amp;quot;I loved doing it as a hobby like photography or boxing. I will continue to write though but acting is my love and that is purely my prime focus.&amp;quot;  Thanks Guy - any final comments? &amp;quot;Without sounding banal and honeyed, I really want to thank my fans for their continued loyalty and support. They&amp;#039;re a splendid bunch. Also Digital Spy. Also Penelope Cruz. Also Mastroianni. Also Obama. Also Francesco Totti...&amp;quot;  Age of Heroes is out in early March, while Rites of Passage and The Two Jacks are slated for a September release.  Follow Guy on Twitter via @guyburnetreal "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/soaps/interviews/a296811/guy-burnet/>