BY LARRY CARROLL | Imagine being able to make a living as an actor. Now imagine being in a blockbuster film that does millions of dollars in business. Finally, imagine that you've been in two such films. With only three movies under his belt, actor Rick Yune finds himself living this fantasy. After appearing in the smash hit The Fast and the Furious, Yune follows it up by playing the mysterious assassin Zao in the new James Bond film Die Another Day.

Another surefire blockbuster, it would seem. He was extremely fortunate to be chosen for the part - at 31, he is the youngest Bond villain ever in the franchise. While Yune admits that he was intimidated the first time he stepped onto the set, he realized the best thing to do was just bare down and try his hardest. "History will tell where I stand in the ranks of Bond villains, I have no control over that," he insists during a recent interview. "I was worried about being the nut that ruined forty years of history."

Yune had to go through three hours of makeup a day to have real diamonds implanted in his face. "It was tough to try to be serious in front of Halle Berry and Pierce Brosnan with all this stuff in my face. There's never been a character that's looked this extreme. Jaws used to be my favorite Bond villain. I tried to make Zao endearing like Jaws was."

But how do you bring reality to a character that has diamonds embedded in his cheek? Yune says that he concentrated on the character's motivation. "In the end, all Zao wants to do is unite his country. I was thinking about that, about what lines you'd be willing to cross if someone took your loved one or child."

Yune also managed to use real headlines to give him some perspective. "What makes this film so interesting is how it deals with real life today. The recent revelations about North Korea's nuclear program make it so obvious that the world is no longer black and white." Yune is a person who clearly cares a great deal about the politics of the world stage. "I can't understand why anyone would want nuclear warheads in the first place. If you shoot them off, it's not like you can eventually take over that country - all you do is kill millions of people. We have too many of them. I do believe that our country has to do whatever we can do to protect ourselves - we're king of the hill. We need to protect democracy and the lives of those who live in the free world."

The actor enjoys the fact that the themes of this Bond movie are so different from the films that have preceded it. "This is the Bond of the new millennium," he says. "Everything is updated, from the action sequences to the interaction between the characters. All the elements reflect changes that have occurred in the world in recent years. Its still within the spirit of Bond  its just a little smarter than some of the things that have been done before."

He's also excited because he's always fantasized about being here. "Since I was a kid I've wanted to be in a Bond movie." This dream can be attributed to his father, who showed him every 007 movie in order when he was a child. "It's a rare thing when a father and son can share the same experience. My father and I have seen all nineteen films together, two or three times. They've meant so many things to me at so many different times."

And another dream came true when he met the actors he'd be working with. " Ive been fortunate enough to work with some of the best people in the industry. Halle Berry said my diamonds were sexy, so that was okay with me. She is just an incredible woman, as a person and as an actress." His praise also extends to the star of the film. "In the opening sequence, I had to disarm Pierce. But I just couldnt hang on to his arm. The strength and speed of the guy is amazing. I have trained a lot since I was a child [Yune qualified for the Olympic Trials in Tae Kwon Do when he was 19], but I couldnt keep hold of him. At one point he just bagged me. Tangling with Pierce was like mixing it up with Bond. He's an amazing guy."

The film took the cast to locations all over the globe - Iceland, England and Korea were just a few countries to which they journeyed. But it wasn't always a vacation for the actors. Yune, in fact came very close to being hurt during a stunt. "I'll never forget this," he recalls, wincing. "There was a courtyard scene where I had to hijack the helicopter. I get in, and Lee [Tamahori, the director] comes over to the pilot and says, 'Don't put on your glasses. They don't look right on film.' The pilot was so excited to be in the movie, he agrees, knowing that he needed those glasses to see!"

Yune continues, "I jumped into the helicopter, and there were gale force winds because we were right on the ocean. As we take off, the wind hit and we scraped the wall! I couldn't believe it. You assume that everybody's doing their job, that everything's safe, and then something like that happens. It was scary."

Being in a Bond film is undoubtedly a great rush for any actor. But when the action gets too real, it can be a bit terrifying. Luckily, everything was okay and Yune will be able to work on getting himself into some more blockbusters in the years to come. He will live to Die Another Day - let's just hope it's not for a long, long time.