Patrick Swayze burst onto the Hollywood A list with roles in Dirty Dancing and Ghost. But his taste is far more eclectic than traditional leading man roles would allow, so in recent years the 53 year old has appeared in Donnie Darko, Green Dragon, 11:14 and One Last Dance, the latter film with his wife Lisa Niemi.

In Keeping Mum he plays Lance, a lascivious golf instructor with designs on vicar’s wife Gloria Goodfellow (Kristin Scott Thomas). But he reckons without the unlikely charm of her husband (Rowan Atkinson) and the protective instincts of family nanny Grace Hawkins (Maggie Smith).

Keeping Mum is a quintessentially British black comedy, are you a fan of this tradition as seen in the great Ealing comedies among others?
Patrick Swayze: “I’m a big fan of those movies. For me it was also very much like Arsenic & Old Lace when it came up. It reflects what I’ve been trying to do career wise, I knew I had to break that box office, blockbuster mentality. If I wanted to stay on this road of discovering what it is to be a true actor I knew I had to take chances. So about nine years ago I decided to start to do things that scared me, play characters that scared me: wild Zen like surfers, or messed up doctors working in India; drag queens, paedophiles and sleazeball voyeurs.”

Were you attracted to the idea of sending up your heartthrob image with Keeping Mum?
Patrick Swayze: “I love taking the mickey out of myself, I’m really cautious about not allowing my ego to rear its ugly head. The moment you buy the hype, the moment you buy the ‘sexiest man alive’ stuff it’s all over. Keeping Mum was part of that process of giving me a chance to make fun of myself.”

How did you find it working with co-star Maggie Smith?
Patrick Swayze: “Maggie and I were working late one night, and we got back to the hotel in Cornwall about one o’clock in the morning. I thought I’d call her because we were sort of shot out of a cannon on this movie, we didn’t really have a chance to talk so I thought I’d ask if she wanted anything. Her room was right next door to my room, so I could hear it ring. She answered the phone and I said: ‘so, what are you wearing? Have you ever seen a grown white boy naked?’. There was this silence, and she went ‘OH MY GOD, WHO IS THIS?’. And she never spoke to me again for the whole movie! I thought I’d really screwed it up. But later on in the shoot when we all went out for dinner, I actually found out she liked me. But I thought I had so screwed it up with this goddess, you know?”

So you played Lance in a very ‘method’ manner then. Did you have to look far for inspiration?
Patrick Swayze: “It wasn’t hard to try to find role models, especially with those guys who think they’re God’s gift, who think they’re an aphrodisiac to women but they’re incredibly lame. It’s scary, I don’t see how a woman finds a guy out there in the world because there’s so many like Lance. I can’t identify with that at all.”

The ultimate example of Lance’s self belief comes when he attempts to seduce Gloria, and reveals his dubious taste in sexy underwear. Was that a tough scene to film?
Patrick Swayze: “It was a really, really scary thing to do. I’ve never done anything like that, that I can remember – or will talk about. But usually if something scares me I know I need to do it. I had a hard time with that scene when I read it. I forget what it said in the script, but it was very funny. I remember walking on that set and thinking ‘I have to take myself seriously and view myself as a professional, standing here in this stupid thong’. I almost said no to that, but [director] Niall Johnson has got such a sense and such a vision. We spent so long talking on the phone, about the layering that he wanted throughout the piece. And it was an opportunity for me to do another one of these characters who comes into the film and then goes away. I’ve been enjoying that, finding these little forays and little journeys. And also you can do a lot more movies if you don’t star in every one.”

So that’s why you’ve been so busy in recent years, is it?
Patrick Swayze: “I’ve been working my brains out. I did a film called Icon, I did King Solomon’s Mines for Hallmark, I did Chicago on Broadway and in LA and Keeping Mum. Then there’s One Last Dance, Lisa and my dance movie just came out on DVD in the States.”

In other interviews you have described Kristin Scott Thomas as a ‘professional kisser’. What do you mean by that?
Patrick Swayze: “Well you go on set and it goes something like ‘I’ll call action, and come out kissing!’. She certainly wasn’t bad at it, Kristin is such an elegant being, really professional. I loved her sense of fun, and her sense of play. I really enjoyed it, but there wasn’t a person in this movie I didn’t enjoy working with and that’s really rare.”

Did Rowan Atkinson surprise you, being such a quiet man away from the screen?
Patrick Swayze: “I loved him. It felt even in the tiny bit of work we did together that it was so much fun, so easy and so effortless. I felt like Swayze & Atkinson should take it on the road. It inspired me, I really hope I get to work with him some more. But he’s got some hidden wild man in there, because he showed up in a different car every week. He has some amazing vehicles, that guy’s made some money off of Mr Bean!”

You talked about the team ethic in these ensemble films. What is it that annoys you on a film set?
Patrick Swayze: “The only thing that really sets me off is if when someone acts as if it’s all about them. I learned a big lesson from Gene Hackman years ago when I did Uncommon Valour, which is about these guys going back to Vietnam to get their buddies out. I watched this man give 100% of himself in his off-camera work. If it required tears and a great deal of emotion he was there every time for the other actor. That can be a bummer because sometimes your best performances are off-camera, but I love the ensemble thing. I love being part of a team.”