FOR a seasoned actor, Mathieu Amalric does a pretty good impression of an excitable child.

"It's exciting, it's like a game no? It's a big toy, I just love it!" he says, sitting in a director's chair behind a huge hotel set on the 007 sound stage at Pinewood Studios. Just moments before, he was on stage and running full pelt towards a camera as a massive explosion shattered a glass wall, sending shards flying towards him.

The Frenchman plays Dominic Greene, the baddie in Quantum Of Solace, and running from fireballs has become just another day in the office.

"This has a lot more action than the last one," says stunt coordinator Gary Powell.

"Obviously Casino Royale did very well, so we want to match that and hopefully better it, so that's a challenge for everyone to make something that stands on its own as Casino Royale did."

Filming took place in Panama (doubling for Bolivia and Haiti), Mexico and Chile, Italy and Austria. "It is hard to find Bond locations because the bar has risen and the world is becoming smaller," admits director Marc Forster.

"There's only a certain bar you can push and there's a point that it becomes unbelievable," says Gary. "The boat chase in Panama was challenging because you're on water and it can change any minute. But we're keeping it real to what the chase is, so engines blow up, but it's a natural explosion, not like a big nuclear one.

"On this one, Daniel's more confident with what he can do. He did 95% of the whole rooftop sequence in Siena, he's literally been doing 18ft jumps from one building to another, running down tiles, then hitting a wall."

While previous Bond villains have had obvious physical traits, like Jaws' iron teeth, Dr No's metal hands and Le Chiffre's bleeding eye, Mathieu was given nothing to work with.

"I wanted to do something, shave my hair, have one ear off, or have a white rabbit, but Marc said 'your eyes are enough'."

Mathieu, who is now quietly puffing on a cigarette, continues: "You don't know who the bad guy is anymore, because they're all the same. And that will be a big problem for Bond because he doesn''t know who the villain is, so it's not like usual where they spend time together and almost respect each other.