Moving from chair to chair, from coffee machine to coffee machine is the limit of my action in most films 
There's really nothing Stephen Fry can't do when he puts his mind to it. The writer, actor, director and comedian is one of Britain's most beloved personalities, whether appearing in classic TV shows A Bit Of Fry & Laurie, Blackadder or Jeeves & Wooster, films such as Wilde (1997) and Gosford Park (2001), lending his silky smooth voice to The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy (2005), or serving as host of the BAFTAs for the past few years. V For Vendetta allows him to indulge his passion for action movies but, as he reveals here, the blockbuster has plenty to challenge the brain as well...
What was it that appealed to you about the role and why did you decide to take it?
Being beaten up! I haven't been beaten up in a movie before and I was very excited by the idea of it. No, I love the idea that someone changes. As an actor it's always the thing that you look for. He is someone who starts off bright, cheerful and confident and then has everything taken away from him. It's a wonderful journey to take.
What, if anything, are you hoping this movie will create in terms of debate?
Do you remember in the 70s there was a wonderful strand of dystopic films, like Zardoz, Soylent Green, The Omega Man and, of course, Logan's Run, which Joel [Silver] is developing at the moment. I guess it was because there was a big issue about the individual and the state. In the 80s it seemed to be less interesting to people. But suddenly it's something that everyone's talking about again and it's rather wonderful that a popcorn movie like this also has people coming out of screenings really talking about things. Not in a pompous, intellectual way but genuinely talking about the way their country is going, and the way the state is going. The Patriot Act has finally gone into law in America, for instance, and we have our own issues like that. The film doesn't directly address these issues, of course, but it raises the questions, which is one of the best things that film can do, and if it can do it in a form that's wholly entertaining, then so much the better.
If you could project 25 years into the future from where we are now, how likely is this to be the face of England?
[Laughs] If only it could be that stylish... I think my view is that whenever you project into the future you're never likely to be accurate in the details, or the paraphernalia and style. It's in the spirit of it. I mean Orwell's 1984 was not physically accurate in many ways. We don't know what's going to happen in 20 years time. But it's certainly possible that the liberty of the individual will be compromised if not by the state then by a combination of the state and the billions of bits of data about us floating around which anyone can access, whether it's organised crime, or corporate or global organisations, or individual states. There's no question that things will be up in the air in a way that we can't imagine.
Were you a fan of graphic novels before appearing in the film?
Personally, I'd never seen a graphic novel. I knew they existed because friends of mine like Jonathan Ross collect them and some very literate and intelligent people really rate the graphic novel as a form. When James first gave me a copy of the original I was absolutely astonished by its power, its passion and its smartness. I became really keen and read a couple of others.
Has appearing in an action film whetted your appetite for something like Die Hard V?
Moving from chair to chair, from coffee machine to coffee machine is the limit of my action in most films. But I enjoy being cast in them because I love watching them.
V has his Shadow Gallery in which he stores national treasures. If you could have your own Shadow Gallery, what would you store?
Apart from the obvious first editions of Shakespeare and so on I think I'd have a cricket bat signed by the side that beat Australia. And a big old wireless set that had lots of episodes of The Archers on it.
V For Vendetta is released in UK cinemas on Friday 17th March 2006
