lYou look very handsome and dapper with a bald head.

Well, I was bald before. When I did Se7en I was bald, for a much briefer period of time. It?s actually the easiest thing in the world. I?d shave it every day and then the make-up artiste would make it look good. But it?s funny, you can?t stop touching it and other people can?t stop touching it.

lYou made Lex Luthor look human...

Did I? Well, probably the best way to answer that question is to say that I don?t look at any character that I play, and I don?t genre-fy them. Even if you?re playing Iago in Othello, you don?t go: ?Oh, now I?m going to twist my moustache.? You try to approach it from the point of view that this is a character who is motivated by what? And what kind of character is it? And yes, the character is doing some good things and doing some bad things, but I never sit back in a position of judgment. I allow the audience to do that.

And so, in my experience in film, where I have played characters that are on the darker side or have been categorised as villainous or evil, I always just go, well, it?s just lazy because people aren?t that way. I know it?s a cartoon and it?s a comic-book, and it?s iconic and all that, but from the perspective of what you?re trying to do in a performance is you are trying to humanise a character so that it isn?t just that. So, I?m always trying to avoid the stereotype. And if that comes through, well then, part of that?s me, but I?ll bet an even bigger part of it is (director) Bryan (Singer) and (music composer) Jon Ottman.

lTalk about the scene with Brandon Routh. He needed help?

No, no, no. I always thought the role of Superman should be played by an almost total unknown. I remember when I met Tim Burton about 11 years ago and he was going to make the movie, and at that time they were talking about famous actors playing the role.

It?s a little bit like when Bryan was doing The Usual Suspects, and he was offered more money in the budget if he?d recast me with a famous actor. And Bryan was like, ?No, the actor that plays Verbal can?t be well known. You cannot have a persona.? And I?ve always felt the same thing about Superman. So, I think it was the right choice and I think Brandon is a very good actor.

I think Bryan shaped him incredibly well. I think he?s about as prepared as one can be, with two feet on the ground for what?s about to happen, just in terms of being known. But I mean, in terms of the wise old actor giving the young newbie some advice, he?s gonna do fine.

lWhat do you recall from seeing the original film in 1978?

Well, I was in theatre then and I remember all of us were very excited about Marlon Brando being in that movie. I remember we all came down to Westwood and saw it on a Friday night on opening weekend, and we just loved it. And I had seen Christopher Reeve in a play that he did at the Ahmanson Theater with Katharine Hepburn, which is the play that the producers saw, which led to his screen test for Superman. So, I knew who he was. It was great fun, and I have enormous respect for (director) Richard Donner. I think one of the things that I knew going into this project with Bryan, was that he and the writers really have an almost respect for the genre, for the fan base, for the Donner films.

lHow has London enriched your life?

Well, I have lived in London full-time for three-and-a-half years, and will live in London full-time for the next eight years. So, my commitment is real and it is the only way I think to develop a theatre company that?s going to last after I leave. And I want the Old Vic to be a destination theatre, just as The National or The Royal Court. So it?s a full-time job. After doing 10 years of mostly movies and occasionally squeezing plays in, I decided I wanted to do 10 years of doing mostly plays and occasionally squeezing movies in.