Cupid arrives for Matthew

After five months in tight quarters with a load of other guys making the submarine movie U-571, it was nice to go and spend some time working with a lady like Jennifer Lopez on The Wedding Planner.

Jennifer plays Mary, a wedding planner who is organising the wedding between my character, a doctor called Steve, and an internet tycoon played by Bridgette Wilson-Sampras.

However, the script throws Jennifer's and my character together for a classic comedy love story in which career and cupid collide and we almost end up in an old-fashioned musical doing the waltz and the tango.

This was quite tough for me as Jennifer trained as a dancer and is a great mover and I'd never done a dance scene before, let alone supposedly looking like Rudolph Valentino.It was real fun to make, because in real life Jennifer and I come from different sides of the world, as do our characters, Mary and Steve. She's the Bronx city girl and I'm the Texas cowboy. Her character Mary is Sicilian immigrant stock. My character Steve is not too complicated - he's a laid-back doctor who goes with the flow and needs to have his mind woken up.

It suited me as a role as I'm the sort of guy who leads with his chest but not with his head, so I don't always want to do roles that I have to do mental battle with like Amistad. When I take on a role I classify it as a weekend character or a weekday character.

My U-571 character was definitely a weekday one, a lot of responsibility, a lot of complex stuff. My Wedding Planner one was something completely different - a weekend character with a lot of heart, not too much use of the head.

And I get to kiss the gal. I definitely didn't want to kiss anyone in U-571!