Bridge Of Spies star Mark Rylance has revealed how he got so carried away with painting that he almost forgot he was filming a movie.

The Wolf Hall star, who plays keen artist Soviet intelligence officer Rudolf Abel in Bridge Of Spies, had to pretend to paint a scene by the East River in New York, and got very involved in his artwork that he lost track of time.

“I can paint a little bit. I never studied that much but I love painting. There was one day where I was painting water by the East River, and I had to sit there for quite a number of hours, and I really got fascinated in trying to paint the water,” he recalled.

“I’d forgotten at certain points, we were making a film and got so fascinated with how you paint moving water and the light on the water. So I think I would really get into it if I had the time.”

Mark Rylance in Bridge Of Spies
Mark Rylance in Bridge Of Spies (20th Century Fox)

Mark stars opposite Tom Hanks as lawyer James B. Donovan in Steven Spielberg’s thriller, which is co-written by the Coen brothers.

The three-time Tony Award and two-time Olivier Award-winner revealed how the pair struck up a friendship on set.

Mark Rylance and Tom Hanks in Bridge Of Spies
Mark Rylance and Tom Hanks in Bridge Of Spies (20th Century Fox)

Mark said: “Tom is a very humorous man, very witty and has a lovely, goofy self-deprecating sense of humour, which made me smile a lot in between takes.

“He’s not a gossip or shallow talker. And if he does speak, it’s usually about his great love of history. He’s always reading dense, historical books, so a very straight, delightful man to be around.”

Rudolf Abel
Rudolf Abel (AP)

The 55-year-old actor said portraying a real-life person in Abel, who died in 1971, wasn’t as nerve-wracking as playing someone who is still alive.

“I played a man called John Healy in The Grass Arena who is alive, and would come to set at times. That was more pressured in that he became a friend and I was keen to tell the story more truthfully,” he said.

“You’re true, first of all, to the storyteller. It’s all fiction, and in this case, Steven is using this bit of history to try and tell a more essential story. It’s not a documentary.

“When you’re making a film, you’re making something that will last forever and you’re trying to tell a story… so you are focusing on parts of a real person’s life. You try and be as true to the real person as you can.”

Bridge Of Spies is released in UK cinemas on Friday, November 27.