With his latest film, Hart’s War, about to hit US cinema screens, Bruce Willis says he has had enough of playing the action man and wants to devote himself to more challenging parts, reports a British newspaper.

Speaking to The Mirror, the Hollywood star explains why he’s becoming more choosy about the parts he’ll play, even taking a drop in salary to win more demanding roles.

“I just got bored with running down the street with a gun in every film,” he says. “They’ll find someone else to do that.”

In Hart’s War, Bruce plays a US colonel imprisoned in a German prisoner of war camp during World War II. As the highest ranking officer in the camp, he has to contend with simmering racial tension when a black POW is accused of murdering a white prisoner.

“I wanted to do the film because what was most interesting to me was how frankly it dealt with racism both in the camp and also back home in the US,” he says. “It was a complicated character and I’m old – old enough – to play the part.”

In recent years, the 46-year-old actor has thrown off the mantle of his former action-packed days, picking roles in more thoughtful films such as 1999's supernatural drama The Sixth Sense. He reportedly accepted a cut in his normal $20 million pay check just to win the role. Judging by the success of the film, it was a canny move.

Since The Sixth Sense, Bruce has foregone the ripple of gunfire for more sedate parts in the 2000 Disney movie The Kid and three guest appearances on the popular US TV series Friends. His last role, as charming bank robber Joe Blake in 2001's Bandits, has been winning not just at the box office but also with the critics.

Hart’s War opens in the US on Friday and will be released in the UK on March 29.

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