The Surprising Reason Why Rihanna Was Perfect for Battleship (video)

The idea to cast Rihanna came from me. I’m a fan of Rihanna, like every man. She’s just gorgeous.

Her videos are super-hot and I’d watched them a lot. It clicked for me though after she got assaulted

And she went on Diane Sawyer’s show and talked very frankly about that night and what happened.

She was so intelligent and articulate. She was sat there in a very conservative dress and just came across as very, very real.

I remember thinking, “Wow. There’s much more to this woman than I’d thought.”

I then saw her do this stupid little skit on Saturday Night Live where she was in a classroom giving a hard time to these boys.

She was funny as all hell! I knew in that moment that the girl could act. No question.

I’ve worked with actor-musicians before. Tim McGraw is a big country star in the States who was in The Kingdom and

Salma Hayek Pinault Answers Your Questions

Friday Night Lights and did a phenomenal job in both. You know, Frank Sinatra acted in From Here To Eternity, Mick Jagger acted in Performance and

David Bowie acted in The Man Who Fell To Earth. More recently, Lenny Kravitz and Mariah Carey were excellent in Precious. It’s not a new idea, that a musician can act.

She was nervous and she came with no entourage. She looked me in the eye and said: “Please protect me and make sure I’m good. I will do anything to be good. Don’t go easy on me. Don’t stop until you feel like you’ve got it.” She meant it and she never stopped. There was no diva crew or glam squad. All she had was a hair girl with her, which is more than reasonable – everybody on set has a hair girl with them!

She’s not the lead. I wasn’t going to ask her to carry a film.

Having acted a lot myself I think I understand how to work an actor a bit differently to other directors. I was very conscious of easing her into it. As she became more comfortable I gave her a bit more to do and she took it. She has a prominent role in the film and does a great job. She’s riding a wave right now!

As told to Kevin Perry.

Battleship is released nationwide on 11 April.

Click here to see Rihanna’s photo shoot for British GQ.

Click here for Peter Berg on dealing with Hasbro, why he won’t be directing the N.W.A. biopic and starting the day with a Breakfast of Booze.