Your character is a major player in the CIA, but he is very much a good guy. Was he always this good?
He always was because I was going to do it! It goes without saying that if it's me, he's good. I've played sinister roles, but that was my youth.
How do you get into the head of someone like this?
I didn't get into his head, I created his head. I read the script. I didn't do any research. What would you gain by research, what do you learn? I'd always base the character on the script, that's it. Somebody else has met that guy - whoever wrote the character, he's the one who has to do the research. I don't have to do anything but learn the lines and put on the costume. That's not a put-on, that's just the way it works.
Have you reconciled yourself to being a man of solid virtue and sweet nature, in most of the roles you play at least?
The best offers I get are usually like that, though I much prefer more eclectic roles. This reputation is rather limiting, because as an actor you want to stretch yourself. You always want to go beyond a point, or take another tack, put on another costume. But I've sort of gotten this mantle. Then people talk about me in the same breath as actors like Spencer Tracy, and you don't want to stand up and rail against something like that!
And it does make you ideal casting for a real life person like Nelson Mandela, who you've met.
We're still working on a script for that, it's further down the road but it's in the works. I've met him on numerous occasions and we get on famously. I'm his alter-ego, after all!
