The Matrix Reloaded actor reteamed with his one-time Rocky Horror Picture Show castmate Crowe for the new film and signed up for the first-time director's acting bootcamp - but he didn't realise how tough his old pal would be on him.

Bastoni tells WENN, "He says, 'I want you to come and audition for this role and you're playing a Turk'. He gives me the pages and it's all in Turkish and he said you're gonna learn Turkish and go to boot camp and get in there and dig the trenches.

"I said, 'Why am I digging the trenches, man? I'm playing a hotelier of Turkish descent. We didn't dig trenches!' He said, 'Because you're 10 kilos overweight'.

"Fair enough, so I got in and dug bloody trenches alongside with Michael Dorman and other actors who are sitting there going, 'What have we got ourselves into?'"

And Crowe insisted Bastoni had to learn Turkish: "I had to learn the language so I went to Rosetta Stone (language course) on the computer and it was too hard, so I got a dialogue coach who was both English and Turkish."