Stuart stars as Lestat de Lioncourt, the vampire/rock star and love interest of Queen Akasha, played by the late Aaliyah. Townsend, 29, says he got to live out his childhood dream. "It was the ultimate fantasy playing a rock star," he laughs. "All those years in the bedroom holding a hair brush weren’t in vain!"

But performing in front of 5,000 extras is a little different from playing air guitar in front of a mirror. "I had to drink a bottle of tequila to be able to get on stage and perform," he recalls. "I had a few of my mates from Ireland in the trailer with me before that scene, and we sat there getting wasted. It helped, believe me."

Dating Charlize Theron, who he met when they were playing husband and wife in the upcoming thriller, 24 Hours, he says the attraction was there from the start. "It was an instant thing when we met," he asserts. Stuart used to date actress Parker Posey. "I think I’ll have to join AA – Actresses Anonymous – but you can’t help who you fall in love with, can you?" he shrugs. "But Charlize doesn’t act like she’s a high-profile actress, so it doesn’t fee like I’m going out with a ‘movie star’."

Theron and Townsend are currently in Australia, camping. It’s difficult to imagine the glamorous actress roughing it in the bush, but Townsend says she’s more of an outdoors type than she looks. "Oh, you’ve got her wrong. Charlize grew up on a farm in South African and I’m from a fishing village. She’s so down-to-earth and wants to live a normal life. We love being homebodies and we do lots of camping trips to the desert."

Townsend was set to play the heroic warrior Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings, but had problems on the shoot and didn’t stay on. Bitter about his experience, the actor isn’t very complimentary about the time he spent in New Zealand. "I worked my ass off for that movie and I was devastated it didn’t turn out," he states. "And now, even though The Lord of the Rings is huge, I’m glad I wasn’t in it. I was treated badly."

He certainly won’t be returning to New Zealand in a hurry. "Wellington is a miserable little hole, it’s the anus of the world. But I loved filming The Queen of the Damned. I loved Melbourne and I found Australians to be the most like the Irish out of any nationality I’ve ever met. They’re pretty good drinkers, maybe because there’s a lot of Irish in them!"

Townsend spent a lot of time working with Aaliyah (who died in a plane crash late last year). "She really was a special person and there was a great sense of fun about her," he says. "When I first heard about her death, I just thought about her family. I’ve had death in my own family and when you’re the one left behind, it’s really tough," he says. Speaking of mortality, Townsend says he wouldn’t want to live for eternity like his vampire alter-ego. "I’d hate to be around forever. It would be a drag because reality is pretty mundane – otherwise why would we escape our lives to watch movies?"

Without a doubt, Stuart’s Lestat is a lot more convincing than when Tom Cruise donned the fangs for the same role in Interview with the Vampire. "I wasn’t nervous about stepping into Tom’s shoes because Lestat was a different character in this book. If I thought about it like that, I would’ve been far to nervous to play it."

But what about the legion of Anne Rice fans who’ll be scrutinizing his performance? "Look, I can’t please everyone. I went on the internet and they were complaining before we even started shooting: ‘He doesn’t have blond hair! He’s so short! So I’ve decided I really don’t want to know what they think." Playing Lestat, Stuart had to endure some pretty scary stunts. "When I was doing the rock star segments, I had two little wires attached to me and I was hanging above the stage, nine stories high. I was absolutely terrified, so it’s funny for me to watch that scene because I remember being worried the crowd would think I was a wanker, so I wasn’t going to look scared on top of that!"

Although Townsend is known in the UK, playing Lestat could be his big break into Hollywood. "I really hope it is. The last few movies I’ve done haven’t worked." (Most recently, he starred in About Adam, a romantic comedy with Kate Hudson and Australian actress Frances O’ Connor.) Apparently, Theron is telling her agents she won’t sign for another movie role unless there’s a role in it for her new beau.