Patrick 'great friends' with BellaLos Angeles, April 4 (AZINS) Actor Patrick Schwarzenegger says his "Midnight Sun" co-star Bella Thorne is "super fun" to hang out with and that they are great friends.

"Bella is super fun to hang with. We are great friends, and she is so easy to talk to and get along with... incredibly funny, charismatic, outgoing and very gregarious. In the role of Katie, she was phenomenal. She's a very generous actor to work with," Schwarzenegger said in a statement to IANS.

"I mean, even in the audition room, when she was just able to improvise -- when our director, Scott Speer, was like, 'All right, screw the lines. Let's just improvise a take. Patrick as Charlie, let's have you talk about some of the sadder parts of your life. And Bella, you do this in yours'. She just came right out and shared some incredible real stories with me that many people wouldn't share," he added.

It was then that he saw her in a different way.

"I only knew the fun side of Bella before. And now I know her serious work side and the way that she could act. I have the utmost respect for her as far as an actress, as a person, a friend, everything. Bella is an amazing person to work with," he said.

On preparations for his role for the film, brought to India by PVR Pictures, he said: "I had to come extremely in shape because my character is an athlete, a swimmer. And that was a lot of work because I had to shoot our first shirtless scenes for the first one or two days.

"But every night Bella would make me a fluffernutter sandwich which was white bread, a layer of peanut butter, sliced bananas - which are my favourite - and then a layer of marshmallow fluff and then another slice of bread. And she would make it every night.

"It was definitely a fun set to be on! To train for the role, I decided to start swimming four days a week. One of my friends at USC - he's in my fraternity, and we went to high school together - trained with me in the pool in the mornings."

He would help the actor with certain practices and routines.

As far as diet, Schwarzenegger consumed "probably half as many calories as I normally would. And those that know me know that it's insane how I can just eat non-stop, all day long. So I did have to sacrifice and cut back a little bit to get into shape, but the swimming work definitely helped".

"Midnight Sun" will release in India on Friday.