Maxim: Your character Sydney Burnett is pretty handy with a gun. Are you similarly comfortable with a big weapon in your hand?

Gabrielle: I grew up around guns so it was something I was quite comfortable with. That said, we were shown an array of weapons I'd never seen or heard of before. We were taught how to handle a weapon under duress - how to assemble it, how to disassemble it. The cast used to have competitions to see who could do it quickest - I surprised Will [Smith] and Martin [Lawrence] by winning a couple of times.

Maxim: It must have been a lot of fun working with those two?

Gabrielle: It was like watching a stand up routine that lasted for five months. It just never ended; every day was a new routine, and we just laughed all day for five months straight.

Maxim: Did you pick up any bumps or bruises while filming Bad Boys?

Gabrielle: Not on Bad Boys, but I did on the movie I made right before it, Cradle 2 The Grave. I found the wire work very difficult. We were working with Jet Li's fight crew from Hong Kong so there was a bit of a language barrier. I didn't know what I was supposed to be doing so I miscalculated and landed on my head and neck, and I ended up having to have a CAT scan. I was in terrible pain.

Maxim: Ouch. Is it true that you were nearly in The Matrix?

Gabrielle: I was up for the role of Zee in The Matrix Reloaded, but the part went to Nona Gaye in the end.

Maxim: Are you an action movie fan?

Gabrielle: I'm not really a big action person. I like to leave a theatre feeling like I want to make love or smile, not shoot somebody in the head.

Maxim: What's the worst thing you've read about yourself ?

Gabrielle: There was a movie I did with LL Cool J, called Deliver Us From Eva. My little hometown paper said 'Please deliver us from Gabrielle Union's over-the-top performance'. That was a little painful but most of the time you just try and laugh it off.

Bad Boys II is out on DVD now