Eric Bana was scared of Saoirse

Eric Bana was concerned for his safety during fight scenes with Saoirse Ronan for their new movie 'Hanna'.

The Australian actor had initially been worried that he could hurt Saoirse - who plays a teenage assassin - during the action sequences but quickly realised she was so well prepared he could be the one in trouble.

He said: "Initially, I was concerned because when I read the script, I realised there was going to be a lot of full on physical stuff between myself and Saoirse, who was 15 at the time. It's even a concern when you're doing that stuff with another male actor, but when you're working with another actor who's a young girl... But I had a lot of faith in Jeff Imada, our stunt coordinator.

"After probably two days of training with Saoirse, I was no longer concerned because I could see that she had really put the work in. It's more of a concern when you're working with someone who hasn't done that stuff before. You're just more aware that something can go wrong. She was really well prepared and trained really hard. In the end, I was more concerned for my own safety than hers."

Eric also revealed he decided to take on the role of ex-CIA agent and Hanna's father Erik because he was impressed that producers wanted to make a movie with a young female lead.

In an interview with website www.moviesonline.ca, he explained "One of the things that was exciting about the project, I mean, the script read incredibly original and fresh and exciting but at the same time it was like how cool is this that it's a 16-year-old girl that's playing the role of what would normally be a 25-year or 30-year-old guy. So that was something to me that was very exciting. So no, I had no reservations about being the mentor and occasionally getting my ass kicked. I was more than happy to."