Had you read the Charles Dickens book before filming Nicholas Nickleby?

Yeah, I read it at school. It was probably mandatory to read at least one Dickens and it just so happened that I was asked to read Nickleby. But when this came around I couldn’t really remember what the book was about. I was just nine years old when I read it and, like most things at school, I didnąt really pay too much attention. I read director Doug McGrath’s adaptation for the film before I re-read the book and I thought he did an amazing job. In the wake of September 11 and all the other things that have been going on I was a little disheartened by the state of the world. I felt that humanity was in grave jeopardy and that it would be nice to do something like this that has a good message about compassion, virtue and manner.

Why did you move to Los Angeles?

There are so many opportunities in LA. There are many good film makers working out of England and while I donąt know the exact figures I can’t imagine that there are many more than 15 films made a year while Hollywood makes 500 films a year. The truth of the matter is the real industry is in LA and the cream of the talent is there. And I just want to work with good directors and good people. At first glance Nicholas Nickleby looks like an English film but it was American financed and they did all of the casting out of America. If the film does well in England it still won’t cover half of its cost - even if it is a blockbuster in England. You have to make your money in America. They cast Jamie Bell because Billy Elliot was so big here. They cast Jim Broadbent because he had just won an Oscar. They cast me because I was known from a TV show and had a big American film coming out. Even English films are geared towards American audiences.

You have been out in Transylvania filming the American Civil War movie Cold Mountain with Nicole Kidman and Rene Zellweger, what’s that been like?

Socially and politically it is a really interesting place. For the first month I found it fascinating and then it was tough to be there. I try to eat reasonably healthy food and it just doesn’t happen there. But the work was great even though because we were at the mercy of the weather we had to be there for the duration of the shoot. My filming was about six weeks but I ended up being there for five and half months. Ray Winstone and I are the Home Guard - the men left behind during the American Civil War. Ninety per cent of the able bodied men from the South went away to fight and they left a group to maintain law and order and look after the women and children in each area. It was an honourable job to begin with. I play an albino - I wore pink contact lenses for that - who had been regarded as a freak and completely ostracised, so this was my character’s chance to prove that he was a valuable member of society. The men of the South thought they were going to be victorious and come back after six months as heroes. But it did not work out like that. The war lasted four years and towards the end of the third and fourth year people started to desert in huge numbers and the role of the Home Guard changed dramatically. Instead of protecting they became policemen ordered to track down, torture and kill every deserter that they came across. There are great parts for Nicole Kidman and Rene Zellweger. Nicole plays the daughter of a preacher who was expected to stay home and knit. When her father dies she has to look after the farm and Rene comes to help her out. My Southern accent was really good, I enjoyed doing that. I also researched albinoism in that era and discovered it was generally the result of incest. It was such a compliment to get the role in Cold Mountain because it was the first time that I didn’t have to audition. I met director Anthony Minghella for 20 minutes while I was shooting Nicholas Nickleby and he just gave me the part.

What about wearing the pink contact lenses?

They are incredibly uncomfortable to wear. And because albinos are incredibly sensitive to light the pupils had to be very small. So my vision was really restricted, I had no peripheral vision at all. I was walking into things and it was tricky when I was on horseback. I had to do a lot of riding at night and if I didn’t steer my horse out of the way of trees he would run straight into them. I fell off the horse twice and had a few bruises. The second time I fell off the ground was frozen so that was no fun at all.

This seems to be an exciting time for your career?

Touch wood because this industry is very fickle. I find aspects of the industry tedious and hard to manage. I watch these actors who when you go to buy a pint of milk you see them smiling on the cover of 20 magazines. Then when you see them in a film it’s hard to believe the character because you just see them everywhere. When Tom Cruise flashes a smile it’s a smile I’ve seen on every single magazine. So I try not to do press and if you can keep the balance of keeping a certain degree of anonymity and do interesting work then you can hope for a degree of career longevity.

What do you think of being compared with Brad Pitt?

Fine. There are definitely worse people to be compared with. I think Brad Pitt makes interesting decisions. In the early part of your career you are always compared with somebody until you can stand on your own two feet.

How can you avoid the curse of celebrity?

Already it’s a real struggle. I get invited to literally every single movie premiere that’s going on. If I went to them all dressed up and flashed a nice smile for the cameras it would probably be easier for me to get work. But I just can’t tolerate it. I have lived in Los Angeles for four years and I have been in night clubs three times and two movie premieres. I just don’t get involved. It’s a choice. You can either really fight it and just concentrate on your work and hope that your work is enough to breed more work. Or you can do it the other route.