A visit with injured troops was all former model Brooklyn Decker needed to get into character as an army physical therapist for her new action film Battleship.

Decker, 24, spent time with injured troops at a military hospital in Texas to prepare for the boardgame-inspired film, and admits it really pushed her to do the best she could on camera.

She tells MailOnline.com, "I sat down and talked to a lot of them who had just come back from overseas and had either burns or lost limbs or had been injured.

"One guy in particular was 22 years old and he'd been in Afghanistan and lost two legs and an arm. He told me that he had a two-year-old daughter and here I am at the time at the same age as him and it's like, 'Well, I'm filming a movie!' It felt so trivial compared to what he was doing.

"I really wanted to do these guys justice, and I feel like one of the unexpected things you see in Battleship is the light we shine on all these heroes. They're showcased in such a cool, new and beautiful way on a really big stage and I think that's one of the things I'm most proud of is the spotlight we put on these heroes."