The 43-year-old movie star admitted that he got his son Oscar, 11, to look over the script for his latest flick and he was persuaded to do it after he loved the story.
According to UK newspaper Daily Record, he said: 'They had sent me the script and I was supposed to have a meeting about it.
'The night before, I still hadn't read Real Steel so when Oscar went to bed, I read some of it to him as a bedtime story.'
He added: 'I know - I'm a bad dad. I got to the end of the scene and Oscar was still awake. He told me to keep going and when we got through it, he said: 'Dad, you have to do this.''