An actor who's happy to play the bad guy

In a quiet room tucked away from the mayhem in Cannes, mild-mannered Mark Strong is talking about his perceived nasty streak.

In festival opener Robin Hood, the English actor excels as Sir Godfrey, the nemesis to Russell Crowe's outlaw. He did much the same as the mob boss in Kick-Ass, George Clooney's torturer in Syriana, and villains in Guy Ritchie's RocknRolla and Sherlock Holmes.

In real life, though, Strong is a big softie and a devoted dad and husband.

"My friends tell me I'm a relatively charming, normal guy," the 46-year-old concedes. "Maybe that's why I've been so fascinated by the characters I've been playing, because they're so different. I don't know if I could play myself on film, I wouldn't feel like I was transforming myself, because coming from the theatre, for me acting's all about transformation."

Strong's on-screen evil streak started with a chilling performance in the 2004 BBC miniseries, The Long Firm, which became his career breakthrough.

"The irony was that originally they didn't think I was right for the role. The producer said, 'No he can't do that, he doesn't have darkness, he can't play that psychotic element'. Interestingly, now that my head's above the parapet everyone assumes I've been playing bad guys my whole career."

The offspring of an Italian father and Austrian mother, Strong has a swarthy look - and a polished pate - that lends itself to baddies.

In Kick-Ass, the comic book movie by English director Matthew Vaughn, he got to do some truly despicable things. Like beating up an 11-year-old girl who, granted, was a trained assassin trying to kill him.

"That fight sequence took two weeks," he told the Observer. "So for two weeks I went to work and I beat the hell out of an 11-year-old girl, which is so wrong. And there were days when I would sit there thinking: 'What the hell am I doing?' But no, it served the film, and if you're going to make a film of a comic, you have to deliver it warts and all.

"If you accept that there is a need for a bad guy in a movie - and basically every movie that has a good guy requires a bad guy - then it is an honourable profession trying to bring those characters to life and make them, if not liked, then at least understood."

In Robin Hood, though, his scowling was part inspired by the authentic 12th century garb. "Back then they wore seven layers including the chainmail and in that final battle scene, during sweltering 30C heat on the beach in Wales, I learnt what it must have been like. In movies we've always seen knights battering each other for hours but that must have been complete rubbish. I mean, you could hardly walk in the stuff. Frankly, if I was in that and somebody whacked me with a blade, I'd immediately have to have a little sit- down, because I'd be so exhausted from carrying that stuff around."

Not that the actor, who works regularly with Britain's high-testosterone directors Ritchie and Vaughn, is in any way a wimp. He's happy to be one of the boys.

"I love the company of men as I grew up in a boarding school," Strong explains. "But I'm not one of those guys who needs to prove himself and succeed. If I play a game of Scrabble and lose I don't really mind. I don't need to start breaking things in frustration. Though my character in Robin Hood required a bit of frustration, essentially riding horses and smashing people over the heads with swords."

LOWDOWN

Who: Mark Strong, perpetual bald baddie
What: Robin Hood
When and where: At cinemas now.