Bob Hoskins tells how Cher sweet-talked him into bed - and laughed him straight out of it again. And he reveals how the famous actress drops her glamour image away from the cameras.

When Bob was summoned personally by Cher to play her screen lover in the new film Mermaids (scheduled to be released in Australia on May 16), she told him: "You look as if you eat hamburgers, go to ball games and are a proper man."

Within days, Bob was given a chance to prove it in a bed scene. But it turned into a farce. "She could not stop laughing," he says. "She gave my stomach a poke and made a few cracks. In fact, she came out with just so many funny things I fell out of bed three times.

"The real bed scene had to be cut because we were both laughing so much. All you see is us lying next to each other having a cuddle."

The jokes did not stop there. "There is one scene in the film when I'm supposed to be dancing and leading her around the floor," says Bob. "But without my glasses I am as blind as a bat and couldn't see where I am going. So all the time we are filming this scene Cher is muttering to me, 'Twirl me now ... lead me over to the right'.

"I can tell you, when it came down to it, Cher is a smasher. She is very down-to-earth, very funny and very bright. But if you get in her way, then you're in trouble, son."

Bob also tells a few home truths about Cher's international image. "All that diet stuff is a load of rubbish. We had a catering table full of peanut-butter sandwiches, sweets and chocolates, and Cher stuffed herself potty. It was left to me to say to her, 'Hey, leave that alone - you'll get spots'. Cher likes to kid people she lives on lettuce leaves, but that's rubbish.

"You walk over to the table and say, 'Where are the chocolate bars?' They're nowhere to be seen because they are in Cher's handbag. "

Bob has much sympathy for the singing star who is now also an international actress.

"Cher is like a legend in America," says Bob. "She's a sort of Marilyn Monroe fantasy figure and people are fascinated by her. So she is forced into a very reclusive life.

"Then when she does go out with her mate Michelle Pfeiffer - who is another old friend of mine from the film Sweet Liberty - neither are ever asked to dance. Men are frightened of them.

"But they are real little girls at heart. Just like anybody else, with insecurities about themselves. In fact, they are so ordinary in real life it has to be seen to be believed."

In Mermaids, set in 1963, Bob plays an American small-town store owner, proving he can appeal to women of all ages.

His character adopts the wayward family of Mrs Flax, played by Cher. He brings them into line and shows how they can enjoy a real family life: he does the cooking, reorganises the house and starts taking them out on treats.

"My character was perfect for me," says Bob. "I'm like that myself these days. There is nothing I like better than cooking a great meal and sharing it around the kitchen table with family and friends I have known for years."

Bob is into his second marriage, to Linda - with children Rosie, 7, and Jack, 5. He says that he never reached such a happy family state in his first marriage, to Jane.

"It was my fault. I was away for most of the time and never really saw my family. (Alex, now 23, and Sarah, 18) growing up. I was starting in the business, rehearsing by day, doing performances at night and touring in theatres.

"My marriage suffered, the relationship suffered and my kids suffered. They have forgiven me now... hopefully."

Bob has a down-to-earth attitude to his fame, which can earn him $1 million for a single film role. "My image, if you can call it that, is not of a superstar," he says.

"Everyone who meets me thinks that they know me as an old mate. I don't think I present a sexual threat to anyone. A lot of men identify with the characters I play because I turn them all into the milkman."

Despite many offers, he refuses to write a book about his life, from fire-eater, Covent Garden porter and trainee accountant to world traveler. So he became the victim of an unauthorised biography.

"The main people the writer spoke to were my ex-agent and my ex-wife," he says. "What are you going to get from them: praise?

"My attitude is that this is a very big business and a lot of people are trying to earn a living. So I let it go. Life is still very wonderful for me at the moment, and when it ceases to be wonderful I might get around to writing about it.”

His wife Linda mirrors his attitude towards stardom. "Her enthusiasm for such things has never been very high," Bob says. “She likes getting into a nice frock and coming out for a nice dinner.

"But she has a sensible approach: It is hard to do sometimes, but the home is a home and she does not want me to start trailing all these film murders and dramas over the kids."

Bob gives a wide grin: "Mind you, I don't know what they're going to make of their old man being in bed with Cher. At least it gave my wife a good laugh."