You watched old Alec Guinness movies to play Obi-Wan in Star Wars. Did you rake through Albert Finney's back catalogue in order to play a younger version of his character?
No, because I felt we were creating it together. I asked Tim if he could give me videos of Albert's scenes that I'm not in, because they shot most of his stuff first. But I never got any of them. Tim never seemed to think that was very important.
So what did you do?
We both worked with the same dialect coach. Having the same voice does an awful lot of work for us because Albert is such in a different place as Edward than I am. He's old and dying and I'm his memory of himself. The last thing you want to be doing is an impersonation of each other. We also learned to fish together, and I hung out with him because I think he's a diamond man.
Some people say you look very like he did around the time of Tom Jones.
There's one specific picture that I saw on Tim's desk when I went to meet him for the first time. He had lots of photos of me - as is often the case when you meet a director - but I couldn't recognise where this one was taken. So I turned it round - and it was Albert from the '60s, I guess. He was laughing in it and there's something about his smile that is similar to mine. I thought it was me.
So you'd like to be just like him when you grow up!
I can only hope so. What's nice about him is that he loves acting and he's still really fired up by it, even though a lot of actors his age - some people I've worked with - are less passionate about it. It's what they do, so they do it, but they don't really like it anymore. But whereas he loves all the acting, he doesn't like any of the trappings that go with it. He never goes to award ceremonies, he doesn't like to go to press junkets and he doesn't attend premieres. And I quite like that about him too (laughs)
What about yourself? Are you as cheesed off with America as you were about five years ago?
I'd been doing too many things back then. I'd been burning the candle at both ends all the time, and I didn't have the energy for it anymore. So I took some time out, went on the stage. It's very cool in Britain to diss Hollywood but, as I learned making Young Adam, when your own industry is playing exactly the same games it becomes more confusing. I stepped back and said "Okay, I like to make films, I like to work, and I want to work with interesting people." And so now I don't care if they're made in America or in Finland or here. I just want to be involved in good work.
So, like Albert, you still love it?
Yeah. More and more. I don't spend nearly as much time worrying about any of the other stuff - like fame, being at parties, any sense of career or persona. I'm focusing on the work itself, and it becomes simpler as a result. Last year I did three films back to back and I think I had two weeks off in the whole year. And yet, by the last day of filming in New York, I was completely fine. I go to work and then I go home. And when I'm at work I go on set, I do my work. I don't horse around anymore. I mean, I'm still friendly with everyone but I now know how to make it work.
ALAN MORRISON