GAEL GARCIA BERNAL - BERNAL LEFT BATTERED BY GUN TRAINING

Mexican heart-throb GAEL GARCIA BERNAL was left battered and bruised as he struggled to learn how to use a rifle on the set of his latest movie THE KING. THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES star, 27, played an ex-Naval officer in the Texas-set drama, in which he stars opposite WILLIAM HURT and LAURA HARRING. Bernal admits he was injured during training for the movie, because the rifle was so heavy. He says, "I had a lot of training and a lot of spinning it around and carrying it and doing that drill. I was working with an ex-official in the army and he showed me how to do it. "I practiced every night. The rifle is really, really heavy. More than dropping it, I got hit quite a lot and my knuckles would be completely destroyed and my fingers and my funny bone would get hit and it would hurt like hell. "It was dangerous but I didn't hit anybody (with the rifle)."