Screen Work Always Boils Down To That

Every Job Is Different. I Don't Think That I've Ever Had That Wonderful Feeling When You've Finished A Job Or Where You Feel Like You've Mastered It Or Sort Of Nailed It... You Can Never Be Satisfied. If You're Satisfied, It's Time To Retire.

And I Think It's Because Good Cons Are All Based On The Victim's Need, And The Successful Con Artist Is The One, I Guess, Who Can Exploit That. I Remember Reading Something About This, That One Of The Great Traits Of Confidence Tricksters Is The Level That They Flatter Their Victim.

I Think I Went Through Early Years Of My Career Sort Of Thinking, "well, Maybe I'm Just Not British Enough." And I Always Remember My Father Saying To Me, "don't Think You're English, Because However English You Feel, Some Englishman Is Going To Remind You That You're Not." Now, For Him It Must Have Been A Much More Acute Experience, Because He Immigrated To England. I Was Born There, So I Kind Of Felt I Had The Right To Assume That I Was British, But It's True. The English Are A Very Warm And Welcoming People, But There's A Streak In There That Reminds You, Occasionally.

I Think, Because Of My Background, Which Is Slightly More Exotic Than The Average British Actor, I Think, I Sort Of Occupied This Little Niche Quite Early On Of Playing The Foreign Guy. It Started Way Back At Drama School, I Played An Eastern European Heavy, I Played The Russian Mobster. And I Have Done All Those Different Ethnic Roles, And I Think It's Partly Because Of My Look, I Think I've Got An Adaptable Sort Of Nondescript Ethnicity, Which You Can't Quite Pin Down, But It's Enough To Kind Of Get A Flavor Of Something.

I Enjoy Playing Villains - I'm Very Proud That I Belong To A Very Honorable Tradition Of British Actors Who Come To Hollywood To Play The Bad Guys. At Some Point In American Film, I Think There Was The Idea That The British Accent Had A Tone To It That's A Little Bit Naughty.