Hollywood Byte #47: Eragon

"I think it's quite a great idea for fans of the film to be able to star as the hero of the game," said Speleers. "It's like when you play sports videogames, it brings back that feeling when you're a kid, you're running around playing soccer outside and you imagine you're your favorite soccer player. With the videogame, you get to do that, and now it's with movies as well. I think it's entertaining, but I hope they watch the movie first, of course."

Growing up in England, Speleers did spend some time playing videogames.

"I played videogames for a little bit," said Speleers. "I wasn't allowed to until I was a certain age because my family didn't want me stuck in a room bashing buttons all day long. Eventually I got PlayStation and PlayStation 2 and I got into that for a while. I still pick up a game every now and again. I spent a lot of time playing outside growing up, kicking a ball around or whatnot."

Although he didn't bring a PS2 on set with him for Eragon, his friends did.

"In between takes I was learning lines or having a chat with someone," said Speleers. "My friends actually brought one of their PS2s on set so that they could play FIFA in the trailer. I was so busy that I didn't really play. I was so busy on set and I was living my dream of being an actor, which is something I always wanted to do, so I wanted to be around the set at all times."

During the long shoot, Speleers was able to explore new countries, including Hungary, Slovakia and Vancouver. He said he was lucky to have such epic scenery to work with, including sweeping valleys and mountains that served as backdrops to the story. One thing he did have to use his imagination for was interacting with Saphira, the dragon voiced by Rachael Weiss.

"I was working with a tennis ball most of the time in front of blue screen and that was pretty challenging, but I learned to enjoy it and learned to have fun with the experience," said Speleers. "The dragon was the tennis ball, so that's where I had to use my imagination. We didn't have a voice track there, so there was someone off to the side saying the lines. Rachael Weiss didn't come in until the end of the movie to voice Saphira."