If you’re one of the tens of thousands who are expected to flock to the cinemas this weekend to see Ron Howard’s hotly anticipated new film Rush, keep your eyes peeled for the guy who plays one of the German reporters.

If his face looks familiar, you may have seen him in Saving Private Ryan, or Captain America: The First Avenger, or Charlotte Gray, or maybe The Illusionist.

Or it may just be that you’ve seen him in the post office in Abbots Langley High Street or popping in to The Swan for a quick pint.

Erich Redman’s appearance in Rush is the latest in a string of character roles in Hollywood blockbusters the Russian-born German, who has lived in Abbots since 2001, has played since he first decided to make a career out of acting in 1992.

“I’m one of a posse of reporters who go round from one Grand Prix to another, following the drivers,” says Erich of his part in the biopic that recreates the 1970s rivalry between Formula 1 drivers James Hunt and Niki Lauda.

”We get to know all the drivers really well, and their wives and girlfriends.

”I spent a few days on the race track at Blackbushe Airport in Hampshire with F1 cars racing past me at full throttle all within 15ft of me. A lot of it was me in the pit lane and doing a report to camera with them frantically changing the tyres behind me, it was very noisy, very energetic.

”Unfortunately, my character hasn’t been given a name – none of us poor journalists have!”

Erich is an old hand at working with big-name directors and A-list celebrities, and was particularly impressed by Ron Howard.

”Normally when you audition for a part and you reach the second audition, you have to do another reading to impress a little committee, but it was just Ron Howard sitting there and he just wanted a little chat. He’s just like he was as Richie Cunningham in Happy Days – he’s aged a little bit but he’s just as charming and nice.”

Ron Howard’s personality pervaded the set, creating an ”unusually happy film, a really happy occasion”.

Erich was a big fan of F1 in Michael Schumacher’s 1990s and early-2000s heyday, and got to meet a number of driving stars from the 1970s, some of whom loaned their cars to the production.

”I was a little jealous,” Erich laughs, ”they have great lives – they race at the weekends and they have great parties afterwards and have lots of girls round them all the time. I thought: ‘In my next life, I’m going to be a racing driver’. It looks so much more fun.”

  • Rush is out in cinemas now.