Interview - Sean Bean

At that time, I remember being told (by someone who knew him well), that he was "a man of few words". I'd spoken to Sean briefly before that explanation was offered to me, and I remember thinking, "It's not true." Sean had been at a bit of a loss for words when confronted by my surprise appearance on that Monday afternoon in June, but I put that down to a combination of being taken off-guard, and his not being quite certain what to say to me. After all, here I was, a fan, popping up out of nowhere, greeting him as if I'd known him for years, alternating between tongue-tied embarrassment and gushing enthusiasm. But I did remember thinking: "It's not true." Because Sean struck me then - as he still strikes me now - as a person who is wise enough to keep his own counsel when the conditions call for it - and confident enough in himself to be positively gregarious when he's comfortable, and in his own element.

Flash forward now, nearly two years, to a purpose-built set in a long, low building that was something else in a former life, but which is now Cine Space film studios on Toronto's waterfront. It's March, there's a bitter wind blowing, and it's been snowing off and on all day. In this long, low grey building, they are making a film. It's called Don't Say a Word, and it stars Michael Douglas and Famke Janssen. And Sean Bean.

In the novel, the bad guy's name is Sport. He's American. He does horrible things and consorts with horrible people. He and a very large nasty man kidnap a little girl and hold her to ransom.

In the movie, Sport has been renamed Patrick Koster. He's English. And blond. He's wearing a black, body-hugging pull-on top and slim-fitting black trousers. And as villains go, he's looking extremely attractive on the studio monitor, where they're playing back the video of the rehearsal which has just taken place.

The scene is a crucial one. Koster (played by Sean) and his cohort (played by Conrad Goode) - a convincingly intimidating character with long hair, a beard, tattoos on his biceps and a wardrobe that includes a black sleeveless muscle shirt and black leather trousers - have just grabbed the little girl and are spiriting her away, while she screams in protest and alerts her mother.

The scene is about 20 seconds long and Sean has one line to deliver - four words in total. For this one singular contribution to the day's filming, he has been standing by at his hotel since two o'clock this afternoon. At about six, he was collected by his driver and driven to the studio, where he changed into Patrick Koster's clothes and went into Makeup. It's now nearly half past seven. They've rehearsed the action several times and they're almost ready to do it for real. Bells ring and people fall silent.

Take One.

The action is taking place inside the apartment where Michael Douglas and Famke Janssen live with their little girl (played by Skye McCole Bartusiak). The apartment itself has been constructed, life-sized, in the studio space in front of us. It's a bit like looking at the outside of a house before its exterior cladding has been added: two-by-fours and sheets of plywood making up the walls...tall, old-fashioned windows, through which green curtains can be seen. The whole of the set has been raised up off the ground on scaffolding, so that the cast and crew must climb a number of steps to enter it. Against the far wall of the studio is a panoramic view of New York City - the view, one gathers, from one of those tall, curtained windows.

Take Two.

You can hear the action behind the wooden walls - people moving around, lines being delivered. You can watch it on the monitor down on the floor. Famke Janssen settles in one of the black directors' chairs, to observe.

Take Three.

Skye's mother, who is also in the studio, tells me how nice she thinks Conrad Goode is in real life - and how he does terrible things to her daughter over the course of the movie.

Take Four.

Director Gary Fleder, in jeans and a t-shirt, runs down from the apartment to have a look at the playback of the scene on the monitor. They reload the camera.

Take Five.

It's 7.45 pm. Skye's mother and one of the crew try to decide whether the finished film will carry a PG or an R rating.

Take Six.

They're done.

Sean descends from the set and stops momentarily to chat with the crew sitting around the monitor. He has a little painted plaster head in the pocket of his trousers. It's the mock-up for the toy based on his Boromir character from The Fellowship of the Ring. He was sent it only that morning, and for a few minutes all gather round to examine the plaster figure's facial features, beard and hair.

"Look fierce," one of the female crewmembers suggests, and Sean obliges with an expression of utmost fierceness. We're treated to the warrior Boromir, as portrayed by a clean-shaven and de-wigged Sean Bean, wearing Patrick Koster's clothes.

Boromir. Looking fierce.

Such is the unreal and sometimes disorienting world of showbusiness.

Sean collects a cup of tea, and we negotiate a path out of the studio, past the table of catered food...the electricians...the set decorators...to the parking lot, and the motorhome which acts as Sean's portable dressing room.

Inside, you can tell it's only a temporary home. Other than the handwritten sign on the door - Koster - there's very little to identify the trailer as belonging to Sean. There's a fur-trimmed, hooded parka hanging on a hook, and on a chair there's a very battered and worn brown leather carry-all. Discarded across it are a nondescript t-shirt and a pair of track pants with a stripe down the side of each leg. On the counter, in a very clean and not-much-used kitchen area, there's a bulk container of chocolates, a package of cookies and a photocopied menu for that day's lunch on the set. Scattered around a table are pens and pencils and bits and pieces of paper, notes, scribbled things. To this, Sean adds two bottles of Newcastle Brown Ale.

A cup of tea for me is delivered by an obliging member of the production crew, and we sit down to chat.

Very quickly, I discover there are certain subjects which make Sean's face and eyes light up, which convey a passion and an enduring love. They include his children (older daughters Lorna and Molly, whose mother is actress Melanie Hill; and Evie, his two and a half year old, whose mother is actress Abigail Cruttenden. "She has long fair hair," Sean says, tenderly, of Evie. "She's talking a lot now...."). The other enduring loves of Sean's life are Richard Sharpe, the character he played in fourteen two-hour television movies in the mid-1990s; Lord of the Rings, the project he recently completed filming in New Zealand; gardening;...and Kes, the 1969 film directed by Ken Loach, which tells the story of a 15-year old boy from the north of England, who has limited options in life and a bleak future, who discovers his sense of self and finds a certain power in his relationship with a kestrel he has rescued, nurtured and trained.

Above and Below: Production stills from Kes "I've watched that one about 30 times," Sean reveals. "Some of the things in that remind me of being a kid at school."

Was he ever bullied as a child? I wonder.

"No," he says, dismissing the idea, but not without some thought. "There's always bigger kids than you.... But it was just a big comprehensive school...and it just all reminded me of a bleak Monday afternoon, with rain pelting down on the football pitch outside...and playing football and freezing...and just the whole thing about it."

"It had a big effect on me. My kids watch it and they love it. It's also a really brilliantly written book by Barry Hines. Fantastic acting...directing...."

"I used to have a kestrel. I had a license for it. I think when people saw Kes, a lot of kids did want to get a kestrel...I've still got a couple of friends who are really still into that, who've been doing it for 30 years...goshawks and lanner falcons, kestrels and sparrowhawks... it wasn't a sort of fad with me, it wasn't a passing craze. I was fascinated by wildlife when I was younger...and natural history...and it's something I still am interested in."

Sean's interest in wildlife and working outdoors has endured, and occupies a good deal of his time when he's between films. He's passionate about the garden attached to his home in Hampstead, North London.

"I put quite a few trees in last autumn. A lot of silver birch and a couple of native trees - just generally doing gardening, putting plants in and hedges in. It takes quite a lot of time and I love it. Though I'm not very good with indoor plants...they always seem to die. I'm getting a bit better - I think you've got to feed them and each plant requires a different sort of attention. I've loved gardening since I was a kid. We had a next door neighbour, a fellow called Ron Howard, who was a lovely old guy who used to live next to us for years. He taught me a lot about natural history and ornithology and plants...I still have some of his plants that I'm growing in my garden. He died about ten years ago. He was a great fellow. I've always had an interest in those things.... I make bird boxes in the garage and put them up in the trees."

What else does he do when he's not busy working?

"I'm usually catching up on things I should have been doing while I was filming...a pile of mail...and bills. I like reading. I like watching a lot of sports on tv...football, boxing... I like cricket a lot. I try to get down to Lords to watch Yorkshire if they're playing down there."

And of course, there's Sheffield United. Sean's zealous support for his team is well-documented and undiminished.

"I'm still going to matches. I've got a good friend who lives in London - he's a Blade as well - so we go up together and try to catch a few matches when we can. They're doing pretty well at the moment." When he's away from England, as he is now, he stays in touch by having faxes sent to him with the match results, and he stays on top of news and sports from home by reading the British newspapers that are available in local shops. "We're playing Nottingham Forest tomorrow," Sean adds, enthusiastically. "They'll ring me up with that."

I ask about acting. Is he one of those actors who carries the character around with him 24 hours a day while he's filming?

"No...I sort of leave the character at the end of the day. I don't carry anything around with me - no excess baggage or unnecessary thoughts. I think it's too exhausting to do that. To put things into perspective - your work is your work, and your leisure time is something else. You don't actually constantly think about your character 24 hours a day. It's probably detrimental - it would have been in my case, with the character of Jason Locke in Essex Boys. I think everybody's got different methods of working which suit the particular individual. Mine is to sort of play the part, and give 100%, to concentrate and focus on it while I'm actually working, but then leave it behind until the next day."

I'm intrigued by the actual process of acting. How, I wonder, does he do it?

"If you have a very good concept of your character, you can snap into it," Sean replies, driving the knuckles of one hand into the palm of the other. "Like that. In a few moments. The most difficult part is when you first start off, and you start shooting a scene in the middle of the film, so you've not really got an anchor to begin with. It's a bit like painting on a white sheet of paper...knowing where to start. But once you've got something down, then you've got a sort of rope to hang onto, and you can go in different directions and experiment. Quite early on you develop and establish a character, and I find it quite easy to go into it and come out of it as I wish."

How does he come down from a very intense moment, such as the scene in the garden in Essex Boys, when Jason Locke has to be physically abusive to his wife, played by Alex Kingston?

"That scene was shot in the small hours of the morning...around two o'clock in the morning...and we did it in somebody's garden - a nice couple who lent us their house to film in. With something like that, your adrenalin starts pumping, and it's like running a race or a fight or something...it takes a while for your adrenalin level to come back to normal...but we had a few brandies afterwards." He smiles. "That helped."

I remark that I thought Jason Locke was so stupid that at times he was funny.

"He was a man bloated by his own sense of self-worth," Sean says. "It was very interesting to play that role, though. I think everybody's got that kind of rage in them."

I know Sean has said, in the past, that he sometimes bases his characters' behaviour on people that he knows. Does he know anyone like Jason Locke?

"I do know people who are similar, who can sort of lose it very quickly and become very violent. Jason Locke is a combination of characters, really...it's not about one specific person."

After Essex Boys and the four-part tv series for British television, Extremely Dangerous, Sean went on to play Boromir in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy. The three films were shot simultaneously in New Zealand over the past two years, with an expected release date for the first installment, The Fellowship of the Ring, at Christmas 2001.

"Lord of the Rings was just so much enjoyment. It was over about the space of a year that I was filming. It's one of the most enjoyable things I've ever done...so emotional. Peter Jackson is an incredible director. He's very on top of things and thoroughly researched...and he knew exactly what he wanted and what was happening at any particular time on any set. He had a little bicycle so that he could peddle to the next set...."

"Lord of the Rings was something I always wanted to do. I read the book when I was about 25, and I was always hoping if it was ever made into a feature film that I would be involved in some way. Then Peter Jackson came over to England and I met him, and it was some time before it actually came about. There was a few months where we weren't sure whether it would happen, or if I'd got the part...and then I finally got it, and I was over the moon. It was fantastic news, that."

"It was wonderful, a fantastic experience. It was great. And I was fortunate to be working alongside Viggo.... He's a wonderful actor and a really great guy as well as a real gentleman. I really got on well with him. We're about the same age, you see."

How long, I wonder, did it take him to get ready each day, with makeup and costumes?

"It usually took about an hour and a half to start off with," Sean says, "but then once we got into a rhythm, we got it down to about 40 minutes. The Hobbits were the ones who took the most time in makeup, because they had to get their feet on."

In The Fellowship of the Ring, Sean is wearing a wig (an exceptionally good wig, he adds, with great deference to the wig-maker), but Boromir's beard is his own. "They went to extraordinary lengths with the wigs and the facial hair in the films," he confirms.

And what about Boromir's accent, which has been the subject of rather a lot of speculation among fans in recent months? "It's sort of a mixture of Yorkshire and RP. It's not the Queen's English, hoity-toity...it's a sort of quite neutral accent. It's got the flat vowel sounds...which actually quite suit the character."

I tackle another subject of intense fan speculation...the part of Strider. Was he ever in line to play that part? Sean shakes his head. "I don't think so. I think there were things said in the press...but it's like that rumour where they had me playing Doctor Who. You get a lot of gossip."

At one point during the filming, I tell him, we were reading online reports about terrible weather and bad flooding. Sean does recall one particular incident from that period.

"We were travelling down by road from the top of the south island, from Wellington to Queenstown, and it's about a 10 hour journey, and it just happened that we had a lot of water...a lot of rainfall...and the road we were on was only a two lane road, and banks collapsed behind us and in front of us...and we were sort of stuck in this little place for a couple of days...me and Orlando Bloom.... We were on the phone a lot...wondering when a helicopter was going to come and take us out."

In terms of roles, Lord of the Rings ranks very highly in Sean's estimation. "I'm proud of Lord of the Rings, and I want to be there to tell people to go and see it, and get behind it. I think it's a once in a lifetime role, and a once in a lifetime film. It was made with so much care and passion and meticulous detail...and everybody was so behind it. Everybody in New Zealand...all the people were involved. They loved this thing with a passion. They'd read the book, so they were experts and fanatics about it."

As proud as Sean is of his part in Lord of the Rings, the one role which has had the most profound effect on him is that of Richard Sharpe, in the 14-part British tv series set in the Napoleonic Wars.

"Sharpe's great," he says, with genuine enthusiasm. "A fantastic role - something I look back on with great fondness...the role, the people involved in it...the other actors...the crew. They were very special to me."

Is Sharpe the role of which he is the proudest?

"I suppose it probably is...bearing in mind the length of time I was involved with it...and the whole adventure of it...."

Sharpe and his "Chosen Men", clockwise from left: Sean Bean (Sharpe), Daragh O'Malley (Harper), Michael Mears (Cooper), Jason Salkey (Harris), John Tams (Hagman), Lyndon Davies (Perkins). Missing: Paul Trussell (Tongue).

Was it difficult to leave the character behind after five years of sharing Richard Sharpe's adventures?

"It was," he says, somewhat wistfully. "The last day...the last night...was quite strange. I look back on it now...it was a great time that we had while we were doing it, and I do miss that. I miss a lot of the people I used to know, as well. I'd like to see more of them. I've been away...but hopefully when I get back, I'll see Jason [Salkey] and John [Tams] and Tom [Clegg]. I think it's only when you're not doing something anymore that you look back and realize how good it was, and what great friendships were created."

"And Sharpe's a great character. I think it just came to an end because that was the last war - I think there was talk of doing a feature film or a sort-of one-off, and I'd be open to that because I enjoyed playing Sharpe so much. I suppose you could go back to prior to the Battle of Waterloo and take up some adventures there - I always keep an open mind regarding Sharpe. I hope I can do something like that again."

I remark that of all of the roles he has played, Sharpe is probably the most popular, and the one which fans wish he would try to emulate again in future films. There is, I tell Sean, a certain amount of dismay at the perception that he seems to be concentrating more these days on bad guys than on romantic heroes.

"Boromir's certainly not a bad guy," he reminds me.

"And the part I'm playing next is a struggling artist.... It's a European film set in London and Amsterdam. It's about a 10 year old boy who has visions of a twin. I'm his step-father.... I'm an artist and I look after him as best I can under the circumstances. It's called Tom and Thomas...it's directed by Esmé Lammers."

"But there are some great parts that are villains. It would be unwise to turn them down just because they're villains. They're very complex characters. Most villains have very conflicting emotions. I don't particularly look out for playing one type of character - it could be any character if it's interesting and it's a good script...and there are good people on board....then it's worth looking at."

The baddie role he has embraced most recently is, of course, the one he was filming just prior to our chat, Patrick Koster in Don't Say a Word.

"He is quite despicable, really...." Sean says, lazily, with a mischievous smile, in a voice reminiscent of GoldenEye's 006 baddie, Alec Trevelyan. "He is quite unpleasant.... But I always think when you're playing someone, you have to look at it from the character's point of view, and why. He obviously doesn't think he's being that awful, because he's got a good reason to be doing what he's doing. He feels as if he's been ripped off, he's been cheated, and he's being punished for that."

I comment on the oddity of being called in to film just one short scene which will translate into only a few seconds of screen time.

"It is very concentrated into a few seconds," Sean agrees. "And they are a very important few seconds - all that's important is what you see on the screen. At that moment the little girl has alerted her mother to her whereabouts, so I'm pretty pissed off about that.... If you think of it, over a 14 hour day, there's probably only about 30 seconds...maybe a minute of filming...so you've just got to be ready for that when the camera rolls...and the rest of the time you've just got to relax."

I wonder if there was an apocalyptic moment when he was younger, a defining moment that he could identify as the moment he realized he wanted to become an actor?

Sean shares the chocolates from the bulk container on the counter with me.

"Not really," he says, "no." His mouth is momentarily filled with a lot of liqueur-centered confectionery, and he's struck by the humour of trying to swallow it all and speak at the same time. "Bit boring, really," he says, in the slightly self-conscious manner that I've become used to over the course of our conversation. "It was a gradual thing. I found I could channel my energy into something I really enjoyed doing. It was actually a bit of a surprise to me, because I never envisaged being an actor at all. I wasn't interested in it at school, or in school plays. I used to think only eggheads did that sort of thing. I suppose people come to find what they want to do at different times. It's twenty odd years ago now."

"Acting used to carry a sort of strange tag...whereas now you get a lot of young people acting in school plays. In the old days everyone who went to RADA was sort of middle upper class, and I think that excluded the rest of the population. It's only people like Albert Finney and Tom Courtenay, Alan Bates...people like that...who broke that sort of stranglehold. They were in really gritty, interesting dramas like Saturday Night and Sunday Morning...and A Kind of Loving."

Each of which, we both recall, were also dramatised on the radio - narrated by Sean.

We chat briefly about the traditional British class structure, the system which has permanently labelled Sean as a "working class lad from't north". His father, who owns a steel fabrication business in Sheffield, fully expected Sean to carry on with the family firm, and become a welder. I suggest, a little hesitantly, that, if one's father owned a comparably successful business in North America, one would not be labelled "working class" at all, since our social structure - if it exists at all over here - is defined more by one's annual income than by one's occupation and where they were born and raised.

Sean seems a bit bemused by my concern. "One thing about the States and Canada is that they are very open to giving someone a chance...no matter who you are, what colour, what background," he concedes. "In England, it's got to do with your accent and the company you keep. It's a bit boring being pigeonholed - people are much more complex than the way the media may sometimes like to present them. It's easy to pigeonhole you - 'oh! He talks like that, so he's like that.' or 'She talks like that, so she's like that.'"

Significantly, Sean was looking beyond a future as a welder, even when he was a child.

"I was interested in drawing and painting and I would have liked to have developed a career as an artist...but I think it's much more difficult to become an independent artist where you can paint what you like and become financially secure. I still doodle...I do a lot of things in my diary when I'm on the phone. My diary's full of pictures and sketches. If I had a bit more time I'd like to take it up again and see what I could achieve, for my own good, my own self-interest. I'd do it for my own enjoyment."

Intrigued, I wonder whether one would find his works of art hanging on the walls of his house in London.

"I used to have. They're all sort of stacked away now. I've got quite a few pictures that I did when I was younger, and some of them are pretty good...but I've not really got into it since then. If I had a bit more time.... I know this blacksmith who lives in the country. I went to his workshop the other day and sort of put a few bits and pieces together in metal, and brought it back home and put it on the mantlepiece. That's something I might like to do a little bit more of - this guy has a typical blacksmith's barn - it's just nice to mess about with bits of metal. I've actually got a welding kit in the garage. I don't use it very often, though."

What else is one likely to find on his mantlepiece? A souvenir or two from Sharpe, perhaps...?

"I've got lots of mementos from Sharpe," he says, and then, with a laugh, adds, "I had that put in my contract. I've got my green jacket and sash and sword..... It's an original 19th century sabre. I've got that at home." There's that look of mischief again. "I'm gonna put that on my wall."

"With Prince I kept a little black Alsatian pottery dog. I didn't keep anything from Lord of the Rings, though. They had people trying to get hold of stuff and sell it, so they were understandably very cautious and had quite strict security measures."

What about the "special" tattoo that all of the actors in the Fellowship have had done? "I haven't, yet," Sean admits, "but I think I probably will do. Once I find out what it looks like."

Sean already has one tattoo - the legendary 100% Blade he proudly sports on his left shoulder, a comment on his undying devotion to Sheffield United. He also has an interesting scar under his left eyebrow - a souvenir from Patriot Games, when Harrison Ford accidentally whacked him with a boat hook during the final climactic fight scenes. The scar lends his face a nice touch of villainy ("It's in the right place," Sean agrees, easily.).

I wonder whether he was ever seriously injured in any other roles.

"I've never really hurt myself badly. I suppose the closest I've ever been to an accident is in Sharpe's Regiment, when a horse landed on my head. They actually used that take. The bank collapsed and the horse's hoof sort of sprung off my head as he was jumping. I got a bit of a black eye and a bit of a neck problem. And about six hours before I were in the hospital getting me finger stitched up because I'd just cut that open...."

He pauses to show me which finger.

"And then in the afternoon the horse landed on my head. That were close 'cos I watched it back, and it were a bit iffy...."

He pauses again as he reflects on the gravity of what might have been - the realisation that if the horse's hoof had landed anywhere else on his head, he might actually have been killed.

If the reality of filming can sometimes be frightening, what about the implied danger? How do his children react to violent scenes, such as those in Bravo Two Zero, where Sean's character spends the better part of the last half of the series being beaten and tortured?

"I think they know it's make believe. I remember my middle daughter, Molly, didn't like watching Lorna Doone, 'cos I drowned in it. She wasn't upset...but she didn't like it. She was younger then....but she didn't like seeing me in something where I didn't survive."

I suggest to Sean, rather humorously, that a significant number of his fans would also rather he didn't die during the course of his films. We chat briefly about Equilibrium, which he completed at the end of last year in Berlin. In the film, Sean's character, Partridge, is executed for his beliefs.

"It's a good part," Sean says. "It's only a small role, but it's quite an interesting one. I did like the script. It was a very interesting story about what could happen to society in a totalitarian regime where everybody becomes faceless and grey. My character was someone who resisted that, who had memories of the old world...and he more or less asked to be executed, really. He just couldn't live in that world anymore."

In talking to Sean, one realizes fairly quickly that he does not equate "success" with "stardom". Rather than accepting roles which are "all or nothing" - high profile parts which feature top billing and a constant screen presence - Sean is refreshingly open to all parts, big or small. He considers his appearances in Ronin and Shopping, and his brief comedic turn in The Vicar of Dibley (in which he played himself) as strategically important.

"I like doing a cameo role where it actually says something," he says. "Where the character actually has some effect, rather than just being in the background for all of the film."

If that's the case, I ponder, then are there any parts he would turn down?

"Characters that aren't interesting or substantial enough...or they're more or less sort of filling in...or roles I can't do because I'm doing something else. I've not really read anything that's so horrific or appalling that I wouldn't want to do it. I suppose there are certain characters that you wouldn't want to play.... Actually, I did get a script sent to me once and that was about a pedophile...and that was something I said no to - I don't really see how you can possibly convey any sympathy in playing a part like that, so I said no."

I mention that probably the best character I'd ever seen him play was Lovelace, the rake in Clarissa.

Sean agrees. "That was great. When I got the script for that, I thought it was really well written, well-adapted from the book...which I did read, by the way. When it first came out, somebody had mentioned that I'd not read the book, and that the director hadn't read the book...and we'd all read it, cover to cover, as research for the television program. And it was quite big because it's all letters.... But that's something I felt very comfortable with, that part - I knew as soon as I read it, I seemed to remember the words almost immediately."

Sean's acting career began on the British stage in the mid-1980's, where he appeared in a number of roles, including Spencer in The Fair Maid of the West, and Romeo (opposite Niamh Cusack's Juliet) with the RSC. I wonder whether he developed a strategy fairly early on for committing his lines to memory.

"Once you've learned it, it's fine, you don't forget. With a stage play, you get maybe four weeks' rehearsal and you just do it, over and over again...and it's imprinted. But that's what scares me about doing a play....when you're onstage you can't say, 'Sorry about that, can we go back to the beginning...'"

Is he any good at ad-libbing in the event he forgets his lines?

"Not in Shakespeare," he says, with a wry laugh.

It's getting late and I sense Sean is getting tired. He's been working exceptionally long hours in Don't Say a Word, sometimes filming all night - and I've already gone nearly half an hour over my allotted time for the interview.

Would he ever consider directing a film?

"I think I'm quite happy doing my thing as an actor and just concentrating on that. I don't really want the added responsibility."

What would be like to be doing in 10 years time?

"Doing what I'm doing now, enjoying myself like I'm doing now."

Has he had a chance to watch any sports on TV here in Toronto?

"I watch hockey. It's a bit similar in principle to football on a five-a-side pitch. Out of all the American sports that's probably my favourite...but I'm not really interested in basketball or baseball or anything."

In the US and Canada, Sean can still walk down the street in relative anonymity (although I share my prediction with him that things may change dramatically with the release of Lord of the Rings). Does he have any thoughts about the media attention he often receives in the UK, where he's more or less a household name?

"I suppose that's inevitable that you have attention. I wouldn't say I enjoy or thrive on it. I just think it's something that comes with the job, you know. I don't go out seeking fame or looking for publicity. But at the same time I do accept that because of the nature of the work I do...there will be that. And it's obviously nice when people appreciate your work - and that's a good thing.

"I didn't really follow up on Patriot Games. I probably should have got myself over to do a bit of publicity...I never really capitalized on what I'd done. But this time around, I've got three films coming out, and I hope to be around to promote them. I feel much more comfortable with publicity now."

Does he enjoy travelling all over the world to film on location?

"I'd like to spend a bit more time at home...see my kids a little bit more. One of the reasons why I'm doing my next film in London is so that I can stay close to home to be with them.

"But I do feel very lucky. Actors and actresses are usually taken to places that nobody ever gets to see. In Anna Karenina we filmed in the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, and you get to see incredible things that nobody else has seen before. So I'm in a very privileged position as far as being a tourist....New Zealand...Germany....Canada....

"I've gone from Ronin to Essex Boys and Extremely Dangerous...Lord of the Rings, Equilibrium and Don't Say a Word.... It's been a really good couple of years."

"Filming Equilibrium in Berlin...that was the first time I'd been to Germany. I've always been quite interested in the first and second world wars, and how after the first world war, the second world war developed...so it was good to be right in the middle of somewhere with so much history. A lot of it, like Checkpoint Charlie, has become a bit of a tourist attraction. But you can see a lot of The Wall. You can see where it actually runs through the street. You can see where they chopped it away and tarmacked it. It went right through the middle...just before the Brandenburg Gate. I was in this fabulous hotel called the Adlon, which had been rebuilt...and there was the Reichstag...and then we were filming outside this airport which was built by Albert Speer...this very imposing structure, very German, which made you feel quite small to be around. I walked round Berlin...and there's so much new money being invested...and things have just sprung up everywhere...skyscrapers.... But it's a good place, an interesting place. I'd like to go there again.

"And New Zealand's a great place. The people are so easy-going.... I feel the same way about New Zealand as I do about Sharpe. I mean, I'd like to go back to the Crimea [where the first episodes of Sharpe were filmed] at some point and just see what it's like, ten years on... Yalta...all those places me and John Tams used to go together. I feel that way about New Zealand.... Before, I knew where it was, but I didn't know anything about it...but now it's somewhere I'd like to go back to." He pauses thoughtfully and grins. "Maybe if England were playing a test match there...."

I wonder how, having gone on record as being a nervous flier, Sean handles the long hours spent in the air to such far-flung locations as the South Pacific. Did he inherit his fears from his father, who used to take the family on trips to Spain by motorcoach when Sean was a child?

Sean reminisces.... "We used to get on the coach in Sheffield on a Saturday morning...Cornell's Tours, I believe it was called...about six o'clock...and get to Spain about midweek. We used to drive to London...and then to the ferry...go over on that...through France...there were no videos on the bus, nothing like that. I just remember stopping at motorway cafes in the middle of the night....and by the time we got there it were time to come home again anyway...we spent that much time travelling.... I was probably about 12...13...."

"Anyway, I'm not bad now. I'm much more comfortable with flying now than I was before...I think because I've done so much of it. But helicopters I'm still pretty terrified of. Just ask Orlando Bloom."

I ask him about being flown down from Sheffield in a helicopter to attend a GoldenEye press conference in London. "We had a few drinks before that... and we were flying quite low." He laughs, a little self-consciously. "If I can see the ground, I always think I can jump out and save myself."

I remind him that in Windprints, he's hanging out of the open door of a helicopter, pretending to be a cameraman filming the ground that's hurtling by below. Wasn't that somewhat scarey?

"Yeah," he says, his eyes and voice full of mischief and adventure.

It's very late, and someone from Wardrobe has been by to collect Sean's costume. She's surprised to find us still chatting in Sean's trailer. I ask where there might be a phone so I can call for a taxi. Sean, helpfully, offers to give me a lift with his driver. My hotel is on the way to his hotel. He needs to change out of his costume first though... so I obligingly wait outside. Inside, the last vestiges of Patrick Koster are stripped away, and ten minutes later, Sean Bean emerges in his t-shirt and track pants, running shoes and a loose sweater. He's lugging that battered brown leather carry-all...an ordinary guy again....

...until tomorrow.

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