Christopher Plummer slates 'gooey' Sound of Music role

Image caption, Plummer has received rave reviews for his role in the film Beginners

Christopher Plummer has cited his role in classic musical The Sound of Music as the "toughest" he has ever played.

"It was so awful and sentimental and gooey," recalled the actor of his time as Captain Von Trapp in an interview for the Hollywood Reporter website.

"You had to work terribly hard to try to infuse some minuscule bit of humor into it," the 81-year-old continued.

However, the Canadian actor did concede the 1965 release was "a very good picture, for what it is".

It is not the first time the veteran actor has slated a film he once referred to as "The Sound of Mucus".

In 2009 he compared playing the Captain to "flogging a dead horse", while he once likened working with co-star Julie Andrews to "being hit over the head with a Valentine's card".

The Hollywood Reporter's "actors round table" also featured Albert Brooks, George Clooney, Nick Nolte, Gary Oldman and Christoph Waltz.

Plummer has been tipped to win an Academy Award next year for his role as an elderly man who comes out of the closet in the film Beginners.