Rising Star: James Badge Dale

In “The Pacific,” James Badge Dale plays Pfc. Robert Leckie, an American Marine fighting against the Japanese in the Pacific theater – but AccessHollywood.com’s latest Rising Star told Access that some of the hardest scenes were in the bedroom.

“Those are always hard to prepare for,” James told Access of his love scenes with actress Claire van der Boom, who plays a woman he meets on leave in Australia. “By that time I knew the crew pretty well, [but] those are awkward situations when you drop trou in front of 50 people. Really not as sexy as it [looks].”

In fact, James was prepared to bare all for his role – multiple times.

“I signed about 7 nudity waivers for this show, to do full frontal,” he explained. “I remember the first day it was supposed to happen, I showed up to work, like, please let it be warm today. I get out there and they’re like, ‘We’re going to leave the clothes on today.’

“Next time, I go out there and they’re like, ‘Maybe you’re going to wear your underwear,” James continued. “By the third time, I thought, ‘Is it me? Do you not want me? Let me just drop trou and get it over with.’”

But jokes aside, James, the breakout star in HBO’s 10-hour miniseries event, took his role in the World War II epic quite seriously.

“I can’t tell you how proud I am to be included in this project, and [with] such a fine group of actors,” he said.

And raising the project’s pedigree further was the presence of executive producers Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, who also partnered on HBO’s “Band of Brothers.”

“The nerves beforehand were worse than when I actually met him because [Spielberg]’s a really kind, nice man. Now we hang out and play cards all the time,” James joked of meeting the famed director.

As the show unfolds, the star may seem like a perfect fit for the role, but he said he wasn’t always a shoo-in for the part of Leckie.

“It was about a six month audition process,” he said. “I was doing a play in New York and I hadn’t heard from them in a long time. The play was [ending], I didn’t have a job and I was having that normal actor moment of wondering, ‘How am I going to pay my rent?’ and I got a phone call from HBO asking if I wanted to come to Australia.”

That was back in 2007, and with the miniseries set to finally start airing on Sunday night, James is ready for people to see his work – and learn some history, too.

“I don’t think we talk about the Pacific theater much,” he said. “That’s what makes this so great. Hopefully, we will shine a light on the Pacific theater.”