Role call

Hilary Swank,who plays Amelia,has been a good friend of mine for years,and we’ve always talked about working together. She called me about Amelia just as I arrived to start shooting I Love You,Phillip Morris,and we struggled for quite some time,but I really wanted to make it work dates-wise. So I literally made the two films at the same time,flying back and forth from Toronto.

What was it like working with Polanski?

He pushes you quite hard and always demands that you look for the truth of the scene and pushes until you get there,until you stop acting it and you start feeling it. But he’s also got quite a brusque manner,so you have to have a thick skin. He’s one of the very few completely brilliant directors I’ve worked with. To be an artist in terms of what you see and what you want to feel out of each scene,a kind of master of the technique and the technicalities of filmmaking,and a master of directing actors,which is usually the one that’s missing,is very rare. Roman was all those things.

Have you been following the news coverage of what’s been happening to him?

No,I try not to. I was pretty upset. I don’t like to think of him sitting in a prison cell. But I wouldn’t comment upon it because it’s a very complicated issue. It seems odd. He’s been living in Switzerland for years,and I’ve visited him there,so this is all very strange.

How much of what goes on in The Men Who Stare at Goats do you think is true? The LSD,the telekinesis,the military secrecy.

Most of it is true. In fact,the most unbelievable parts of the film are the true ones. The mundane bits are the bits we made up. The journalist in Iraq—the character I play—is an invention. But there was a rumour that the Russian psychics were bombarding the US president with negative energy,and there was a group within the military trying to combat it. It’s crazy,but war is crazy.

For the actors,it certainly looked like a good time.

My first scene with Jeff Bridges,we were supposed to be tripping on acid. We had these amazing contact lenses that made it look like our pupils were wide open,and we were waiting in this room that just so happened to have this old electric piano in it,and I remember Jeff got so excited. He was like,“Oh,man! They put this keyboard here so we can get into it!” And so he started playing these wild,trippy sound effects on this keyboard. Us in our big black eyes,the Dude on keyboard,I just thought,“It doesn’t get much better than this.”

Do you still get recognised for Star Wars?

It depends on where I am. At home in Scotland it’s always for Trainspotting,but more often than not,I’m stopped in the street for the two motorcycle reality shows I did (titled “Long Way Round” in the US).

Is there anyone you really want to work with?

Yeah,I’ve never worked with Johnny Depp,and I’d really love to. Kate Winslet. Rebecca Hall. Directors,I don’t know. I’m odd with directors because I don’t have a wish list. Daniel Day-Lewis?

Do you think America is ready for I Love You,Phillip Morris,based on the true story of a man who falls in love while in prison and then stages multiple successful escapes to be with his lover after his release?

It seemed to go down very well at Sundance. It’s a love story,an escape movie and a comedy. I like it because it’s a gay film,which is to say it’s a film about two men in love,and I think that’s an important element of it. But it’s not a film about them being gay. They just happen to be gay. I also got to French kiss Jim Carrey a lot,and I quite like that too.