Christian Oliver is a bit of a conundrum. He was a teen idol in the mid-90's when he starred as Brian in Saved by the Bell: The New Class and as Luca in the Babysitter's Club movie. In 2003, he was a TV action hero in Europe as the star of "Alarm für Cobra 11 - Die Autobahnpolizei." And very shortly he'll be appearing on the big screen first as a villainous cartoon-come-to-life in Speed Racer and then as part of the plot to assassinate Hitler in Tom Cruise's historical drama, Valkyrie.

Now, that is what I call versatile.

"I was very excited and honored to be able to do both [Speed Racer and Valkyrie]," says Oliver. "It was a Hollywood, blockbuster, Berlin summer for me. The first time that I was able to combine my two worlds that I live in; Germany, where I grew up and where my family is still, and my home here in L.A. that I love so much and have been living for so long.

"The Good German (which Oliver filmed in 2006) was the first step, a movie that took place in Berlin. Unfortunately, it was shot out on the backlot of Universal Studios. And then, the big huge leap was Speed Racer shooting in Berlin at Studio Babelsberg. We were shooting in Marlene Dietrich's studio," Oliver exclaims with a hushed passion. "It was just great to be there and have that sense of history."

In Speed Racer, Oliver plays Snake Oiler, a very serious racecar driver who will do anything to win the grand prize.

"He’s a little cuckoo. A little snaky. Very full of himself. And it was very hard for me to play him," Oliver says with a laugh. "This is supposed to be his one shot at the big leagues and he’s not getting it, so he’s doing whatever he needs to do to take down Speed Racer."

And while acting in a cartoon-based movie has its perks it also has its problems.

"I had an amazing time playing him because the character just lends himself to all the freedom in the world and I don’t think you can imagine what its like to work with two geniuses like the Wachowski’s. They allowed me that freedom to play such a crazy, cuckoo, over-the-top kind of guy."

Then Oliver goes on to praise the fabulous cast, Emile Hirsch, Christina Ricci, Matthew Fox, John Goodman. . . none of which he got to actually work with.

"I hung out with Emile and Christina and everybody. It was such a wonderful cast but in fact, I didn’t get to work with any of 'em. I’m in the scenes with them, but that’s the beauty and also the downfall of this digital world."

Speed Racer was shot entirely on a green screen with each actor's part being composited together with digital backgrounds to fill in the blanks.

"Big studios in Berlin, just green. I mean you walked in and it was all green. Its weird, you have 200 hundred people in the crew and it looks more like a space station than a movie set because its all high-tech. And then, all day long you're in front of the camera screaming, doing your thing and people are looking at you like you’re not even there; and you’re like ‘Hello! Somebody acting like a full-on crazy fool.’ It was very freeing and exciting. You had to go 100% and even further. You had to go over-the-top because it was literally just you and your imagination; like a little kid playing in the sandbox," then he adds with a wink in his voice, "I was always fun in the sandbox."

That sound you hear is two hundred Babysitter's Club fans swooning from the imagery.

But as excited as Christian Oliver was to do Speed Racer, taking that role nearly cost him the film he'd been aching to work on for so long - Tom Cruise's Valkyrie.

"When I heard about Valkyrie and the people that were involved in that movie, I was blown away. I wanted to be part of it no matter what. So I had been tracking it for a while and by the time it finally got kick-started it happened to be that they were shooting [at the same time as Speed Racer]. So unfortunately, I was up for a couple parts that I couldn’t do because I already committed."

Still, karma was on Oliver's side as both movies were filming in Germany, which allowed him to visit the set of Valkyrie at the behest of the casting director.

"He introduced me to Tom and Bryan Singer and they found a fun little part for me to play!"

Fun little part? Maybe Oliver's English isn't as good as it sounds.

Valkyrie is a historical drama based on the plot to kill Adolph Hitler during the height of WWII. Cruise plays Claus von Stauffenberg, a high-ranking German officer who leads the revolt against the Nazi party.

"Obviously, this is a whole different world. I got a couple scenes with Tom and. . . I mean the biggest movie star in the world! It’s like shooting a movie with the President of the United States. It was amazing," says Oliver, sounding a bit star-struck. "And the historical background of this movie is very close to my heart. Very controversial in Germany, and I’m sure here as well. It’s about these people that live in the resistance, who are ready to give their lives, and their families' lives to help end the war. To give a signal to the world that there were people that disagreed and were appalled by what Hitler had done to Germany. So in that sense, I think this movie is awesome. That Tom and Bryan wanted to shed some light on that side of the war and that side of these heroes. Yes, it's a big epic picture with Tom Cruise… but this movie is way more than that. It has a real story, a real, authentic historic appeal."

These days, Christian Oliver can appreciate the art of filmmaking more than ever, since he recently started his own production company.

"I started producing for no other reason than I’m extremely bad at auditioning and I hate the process. So I cast myself in my own movie! Which is always good. I did a movie (Subject Two) with two friends of mine. We got into the Sundance Film Festival and we sold it there and now it’s out in the video stores. Literally, with Netflix, you type in that name and two days later you can watch the movie that we shot in Aspen at 12,000 feet on a little HD camera."

But as exciting as it is to share his vision with others, Oliver isn't ready to abandon his acting career just yet.

"There are directors that you’d die to work with, Clint Eastwood or Martin Scorsese or Spielberg, the list goes on and is way too big. I’m just fortunate that I got Steven Soderberg already and I’d love to work with him again. I mean working with Steven and George Clooney and Cate (Blanchette on The Good German), it was the most well-oiled machine I’ve ever encountered in my whole life. It was just about making a beautiful movie and everybody was passionate about it. These top-of-the-line people, they’ve known each other for years, they trust each other, and its amazing to be let into that kind of crowd where you realize that it’s a team sport, everybody counts; and there’s no egos. It’s very inspiring to be around those people and I want to take that into my little movies. Still, there’s plenty of exciting roles that I want to tackle before I’m getting totally behind the camera and I love what I do."

If you're Christian Oliver, how can you not love it? A solid career working with some of the finest names in the business, two blockbuster movies on their way to the big screen and there's that other honor. . . becoming a Lego.

"When I heard that, you should have seen my eyes pop out of my brain. I was like ‘that is so cool’ I would've never imagined in my whole life that I’d have a Lego figure and my nephew, he doesn’t know what he has coming yet. Christmas he’s gonna be playing with a Snake Oiler Lego figure. I’m very happy about that."

Throw in the front of a lunch box and there's nothing more could actor ask for.

Catch Christian Oliver in Speed Racer opening May 9th.

Unfortunately, as of this writing, Valkyrie, which was scheduled for fall has been pushed back until February 2009.