Martinez: Not Brad Pitt and Not Naked

By Stephen M. Silverman

06/12/2002 at 12:00 PM EDT

Sultry Paris-born actor Olivier Martinez, who steals "Unfaithful" out from under its star, Richard Gere, by stealing the Gere character's wife, Diane Lane, reportedly resents that he has been labeled "the French Brad Pitt." The name-calling was started by the company marketing his first movie, 1995's "Le Hussard Sur Le Toit" -- during the making of which Martinez, a former jeans salesman and welterweight fighter, allegedly had a romance with his costar, Juliette Binoche. Saying he understood why the studio needed to pigeonhole him at the time, Martinez, 36, told the Associated Press that he nonetheless considers the move a cheap trick. "We are going to present this guy who we don't know and nobody knows. We can maybe explain to the people that it's Brad Pitt but in French. My first movie they called me the French Matt Dillon, my second the French Tom Cruise. So come on, don't be cheap," said Martinez. Not that he has anything against Messrs. Pitt, Dillon or Cruise, he emphasized. In fact, he likes their work -- but he would rather be considered on his own terms. Ever independent, notes the AP, Martinez refused to strip for any of the love scenes in "Unfaithful," explaining to their reporter, "I'm never naked in the movie, because I don't play naked." He then laughed and said, "Because I'm shy ... Sometimes, you know, we are actors, but we are also human beings. Different personalities and different behaviors. And I'm an actor who doesn't play naked."