You've done big films in the past but perhaps never anything of this scale. Was that part of the appeal for you in taking on the project?
I really liked the character. Because of my years in Shakespeare, I really enjoy mining into the character, digging into the character to find out why he is what he is. How he became. So in my portrayal of the uncle, Nizam, I was able - very happily and enjoyably with Mike Newell - to go into the script and speculate, "I see why he is this way. I see why his behavior is that way. I see how he's motivated and what drives him." So Mike Newell, being the lovely director he is, turned a plot-driven piece into a character-driven piece.
It was very, very appealing to me and then it becomes, honestly, like any other film that one is enjoying making. You didn't feel the crushing weight of franchise, of Jerry Bruckheimer who really let us go, let us get on with it. We just got on with the job of telling a straight story with Mike Newell. It became a character-drive piece, which was tremendously enjoyable for me.
Did you get to do any action sequences?
Oh, I do a lot of my own stunts. I do a lot of my own fights. I had a wonderful climbing sequence and I did a lot of that myself. Not too much of my horse-riding - I'm nervous of horses - but a lot of the other stuff I did, yeah. I had a great fight trainer. Great stunt guys to work with so that was very exciting.
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is released later this year on May 28.
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