Who can say no to a film starring Rodrigo Santoro? Not only is he a fine actor, but not half bad to look at for two hours either. In his latest production, There Be Dragons, Santoro combines his experience playing the dashing love interest in like Love Actually with his understanding of working with factual material in Che as well as his know-how in action-packed realms like 300.

Santoro plays Oriol, a leader of the revolution during the Spanish Civil War. While at a rally, Oriol catches sight of a Hungarian radical, Ildiko (Olga Kurylenko). However, Oriol isn’t the only one to fall for this gun-toting fighter; so does another member of his group, Manolo (Wes Bentley). What Oriol doesn’t know is that not only does Manolo pose a threat to his relationship with Ildiko, but to his entire operation, too, as Manolo is functioning as a spy for the opposition.

In honor of There Be Dragons’ March 6th release, Santoro sat down to talk about the details. He touches upon everything from his extensive research to his experience balancing physical demands like riding a horse and brandishing a rifle. Before wrapping up, Santoro runs through his list of upcoming productions, which includes his first go at producing, another piece that’ll let him put his knowledge of the Spanish Civil War to use and hopefully, one day, Chris Sparlings’ Falling Slowly. Hear it all straight from Santoro himself in the video interview below.

By Perri Nemiroff