Michael Mann has revealed Stephen Graham gave them a near-death experience on the Public Enemies set.

The filmmaker cast the British actor as bank robber Baby Face Nelson after Leonardo DiCaprio recommended him, but didn't realise he was a thrill-seeker.

"He's completely crazy," he joked.

"I said 'Can you drive?' and he said 'Absolutely, I can drive' and he doesn't even have a driver's license. So we were in the back seat of a car with a camera and he's trying to engage gears and drive and almost got us killed - but we forgave him."

Despite their brush with death, Michael was thrilled to cast Stephen in the film, which also stars Johnny Depp and Christian Bale, and was astounded at how quickly he lost his Liverpudlian accent to get a Chicago one.

He says: "I met him and I was just knocked out, this is the guy - Baby Face Nelson. He got a perfect Chicago accent in about three days and he's just explosive, he's absolutely an explosive actor. I saw him in This Is England - a wonderful piece of work."

Michael has no doubt about Stephen's talent.

"I think he's got a huge future and he's one of the great actors, you know," he gushes.

"It's one of these things where somebody says 'Well how do you know?' When you do what I do, you know it when you know it, you know it when you see it."

:: Public Enemies is out now.

Fri 3 Jul