It's not every day that an actor can swing from daytime to primetime television and then tackle the big screen, but Josh Duhamel has become the rare triple threat.

Launching his career on the ever-popular “All My Children,” he then took a gamble and hit pay dirt on “Las Vegas” while working his charm and good looks in movies like Win A Date with Tad Hamilton!

2006 hasn't been too shabby for Duhamel either, having been crowned by People Magazine as one of the “Sexiest Men Alive,” gracing the November cover of Men's Health and even proving he's got smarts by obtaining a college degree. Major? Biology.

Face it, what more can rising star Duhamel possible do? Be brought back to earth, of course, by trekking barefoot through the jungles of Brazil, eaten alive by exotic bugs, then given a tent and a can of Dinty Moore stew for the shooting of the horrific thriller, Turistas .

CC: What was it about Turistas that made you want to be a part of it?

Josh Duhamel: It was a lot grittier and harder than anything [director John] Stockwell ( Into the Blue , Blue Crush ) has done in the past and I wanted to be a part of that, but what drew me to it was the shock value of it.

I literally read the script and finished it in one sitting. I never do that. It's the kind of movie that I would want to see, purely for the excitement value of it.

I have to admit, the movie put me at the edge of my seat the entire time.

Good! That's the idea. We wanted [ Turistas ] to have this fun, real sexy, Brazil feel with the great music and the Brazilian booties, but then it takes this turn that you don't really see coming.

You know something's going to happen but you don't really expect it to be that gruesome. It's a little more realistic and less predictable than some of the movies of this genre.

Turistas is the first movie that was shot entirely shot in Brazil. How was filming in this exotic location?

Going into this, I knew that it was going to be challenge – a physical challenge. The most we had were tents and fold-up chairs which was the extent of the base camp. Nobody got any extra special treatment. We were out in the woods and it sucked shooting it, but we all sort of got through together.

Kind of like in the movie, you had to get through it, because all the underwater scenes, all the trekking in the jungle barefoot and walking through the favelas , which are the slums of Brazil; these places were real.

And the bugs! They were unbelievable. They were huge versions of our insects – moths or butterflies or whatever – but it was the little ones you didn't even see that would bite you.

Poor Desmond [Askew] had 70 bites on him. So it wasn't a comfortable movie to make, but it shows up on film because it does feel uncomfortable and claustrophobic and painful.

The film deals with a lot of real-life, horrific situations that could actually happen. You seem like a confident guy. What is it in real life that you're afraid of?

Plenty of stuff. Just moving here from North Dakota was terrifying. I was 22 when I moved to Northern California and then moved to Southern California when I was 26.

I also don't deal with the red carpet stuff well. For instance, my manager got me invited to go to the Babel premiere. I got dressed up and ready, drove up in my car and then there were all these cameras and … I just kept driving, right back home.

So rumor has it that you and Fergie of the Black Eyed Peas are engaged. True or not true?

Not true! We've never been engaged. Do you see a ring on her finger? The first I ever heard of it was while I was over in Brazil, but no, it's never happened.

How do you handle being called one of the “Sexiest Men Alive” by People Magazine?

I don't really see myself as that, I really don't. There are a lot of things that I want to do and a lot of things that I feel like I'm capable of doing.

Whatever the reason it is that I'm here, I feel appreciative of it. I feel very lucky to be in the situation I'm in.

Turistas releases in theaters Dec. 1.