Denzel Washington had to conquer his fear of heights to appear in action movie Deja Vu. He also developed a huge respect for the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agent he studied for his character role. Steve Pratt reports.

MOST people have experienced it - the feeling that something has happened before, or they've been to a place before. Oscar-winning actor Denzel Washington is no exception, which is handy when talking about his latest movie because it's called Deja Vu.

He plays an Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) agent who, thanks to scientists in a top secret government laboratory, can take a trip back in time to try to avert a tragedy that happened four years previously.

Washington, one of Hollywood's busiest actors with hits like Philadelphia, The Pelican Brief and Training Day to his credit, admits to a couple of instances of feeling that he'd been there, done that in his own life. "I don't know if it's Deja Vu but I've had this recurring dream about going sideways in an elevator. Then we had dinner the other night in the Eiffel Tower and there I was in an elevator going sideways," he says.

"In my dream, things didn't work out so well, so I was a bit nervous. But I'd also imagined - I don't know if it was a dream or what it was - this place in Brooklyn, a street. I don't know if it was because I'd been there as a child but it was very vivid in my mind. "Then one day I was shooting a movie, The Siege, in Brooklyn and there I was on that street. It looked like I had imagined it. Maybe my aunt lived there when I was a two-year-old or something. But that's the thing, every time I ask someone what Deja Vu is, I get so many answers as there are people."

He didn't attempt to get to grips with the time lab science in the movie, which him with North-East born director Tony Scott, with whom he worked on the submarine drama Crimson Tide and the thriller Man On Fire. "I didn't want to know. My character doesn't know, so I didn't want to know. In some respects, I guess I'm the eyes and ears of the audience," says Washington.

As an actor, he doesn't just wait for fate to take a hand. "The Bible says, 'faith without work is nothing', so destiny is great, fate is great, faith is great but you still have to work at it. I don't sit at home and wait for it all to unfold," he says.

Yes, he'd imagine there have been times in his career where, by a twist of fate, he might have taken a different path. "This might even be one of them. But it is what it is. I like it the way it's turned out," he adds.

The time travel thriller was the first film to be shot in New Orleans followed Hurricane Katrina and one sequence required the actor to battle his fear of heights. This was a scene shot under the Mississippi Bridge and, just to get down to the set, he had to climb over railings and shimmy on narrow planks while 350ft in the air.

"I don't like heights so it was tricky being under that bridge," says Washington. "But I do have an ego so I couldn't let anybody know. In fact, when we got down there Tony was saying, 'do you want to go down with somebody and talk about it?'. And I was like, 'no, let's get on with it, we'll talk when we get underneath'.

"We were also shooting on the other side of the river a lot, so every day I had to go across the bridge and I knew what day we'd be actually shooting that scene, so I'd keep telling myself, 'okay, I've got two more weeks...'.

"Actually, I had the driver pull my car over and I looked over the side and said to myself, 'I've got to climb over the side of this bridge. Too insane'."

What he did enjoy was talking to real life ATF agent Jerry Rudin to prepare for the role. "I found it fascinating when he started to get into the subject, he's seen all kinds of death and destruction as part of his job, but he didn't like talking about the children," says the actor. "There was a story he told - about after the Oklahoma City bombing - that I brilliantly told in the movie, but Tony cut it out.

"I love research and being educated. It's a great job being able to step in all kinds of professions and into other people's shoes. For instance, Jerry said that a lot of times on your first few days in the job, you don't get much sleep, so instead he'd brush his teeth to keep himself awake. So that was something I put right in the movie."

He has no particularly desire to go back in time and offer advice to his younger self. "I wouldn't go back, I wouldn't change anything. The movie sort of suggests that - be careful what you ask for. When you pray for rain, you have to deal with the mud too. So that's the advice I'd give myself."

* Deja Vu (12A) opens in cinemas today.