JASON: THE DAY I FOUGHT A SHARK

Hardman’s jaw-some time with killer film beast

IT’S Jason Statham versus a gigantic, blood-thirsty prehistoric shark in the monster movie of the summer.

The Brit actor takes on a 75ft megalodon – a recreation of a giant shark that lived more than two million years ago – in The Meg.

The £115m movie, dubbed Jurassic Shark, was a dream come true for the film hardman.

“Who doesn’t want to watch a movie about the biggest shark that’s ever existed,” he says.

“And I get to be in it? This is as good as it gets. Fisticuffs with the megalodon? I’m not saying it doesn’t happen.” The film is based on a 1997 book called Meg: A Novel Of Deep Terror, which is the first of eight novels about the giant killer shark.

In it, the beast attacks a science crew observing marine life on a deep-sea craft.

It’s down to Statham’s expert rescue diver Jonas Taylor to save them.

But this isn’t the first time he has encountered the monster.

To prepare, the actor – engaged to model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley – swam with sharks himself. He says: “On the early stages of the prep, we took a trip to Fiji and we went diving with some bull sharks.

“These things are three metres in length, huge big things.

“There were 20 or 30 of them and they were hand-feeding them big tuna heads.

“We got very, very close. It was a spectacular moment.

“To swim in close proximity to a big, threemetre shark, is to be recommended to all and everyone.” Swimming with sharks held no fear for the hardman star of The Transporter and The Expendables.

He says: “You get very relaxed. When you’re in their environment, it’s quite a tranquil sort of thing.

“It’s remarkable to experience. All of the fear or the perceived fear is done in your own head before you get down there with them.

“Once you’re swimming down there with all the other divers, it’s phenomenal. It’s one of the greatest experiences you could have.”

The Meg is out on August 10.