I read a really intriguing article in the L.A. Times last week about Derek Luke and how he prepared for his new movie, the anti-apartheid drama “Catch a Fire.” He describes all the intricate work he did to play the role of “real-life South African hero Patrick Chamusso, who, after being arrested and tortured for a crime he didn’t commit, became a rebel fighter in the early 1980s.”

From the interview:

Several of Luke’s most emotionally powerful scenes are opposite Tim Robbins, who plays the coolly efficient torturer Nic Vos.

The two purposely didn’t rehearse. “I don’t like rehearsals,” said Luke. “I like to have the needle and the thread, but I don’t like to start knitting until I get on the set. We had a couple of run-throughs and we talked about it, but we never performed it.”

I have to say, I just love that he compared his exhaustive preparation to become and then inhabit his character to crafting — even if he did mix up his sewing-knitting genres a little bit!