Maria Bello is considered by many to be one of the sexiest stars in Hollywood, but all she really wants to do is play Indiana Jones.
"My whole career I've gotten all of these dramatic roles and all I ever wanted to do was an action film," she said.
"Since I was a little kid I wanted to be Indiana Jones. That's one of the reasons I started acting."
Bello was at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sunday to promote her latest film, "The Jane Austen Book Club."
But the actress, whose previous screen credits include "A History of Violence" and "Thank You For Smoking," said her upcoming role in "The Mummy 3" is her dream job.
The blond actress has dyed her hair brown to star alongside Brendan Fraser in the film. She'll take over the role of Evelyn Carnahan O'Connell, originally played by Rachel Weisz.
"She's a real adventure chick," Bello said of the character.
"I've taken months of wushu and karate training. I swing off chandeliers and run around with a Winchester rifle in the Himlayas, so I'm having a blast."
"The Mummy 3" also stars action veterans Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh and is currently shooting in Montreal with a release date set for next summer.
It's a far cry from the proper world of romance that embodies Jane Austen's classic novels. Bello admits the 19th century scribe was never on her must-read list.
"I read a couple of novels a week, but I tend to like very testosterone-driven, hard Hemingway, Philip Roth, Simone de Beauvoir - legs splayed open on the page, basically," she said.
In "The Jane Austen Book Club," Bello plays one of six women with troubled romantic lives who decide to form a book club.
The film is based on a novel by Karen Joy Fowler.
"There's a lighter side of myself that I've never really shown in movies that's such a part of me that I wanted to show in this," Bello said.
"The Jane Austen Book Club" also stars Jimmy Smits of "NYPD Blue" fame and Amy Brenneman of TV's "Judging Amy."
- David Friend, Canadian Press
