Ridley Scott interview

Lohmann looks incredibly young for her age and despite her previous role as the troubled teenager in White Oleander, she doesn't think she's in danger of being typecast as a tortured teen. "White Oleander and this role were just amazing roles that you couldn't say no to," she says. "So I thought, why not? Usually the only teen roles you get offered in Hollywood are the high school comedy ones which don't interest me. As for my look, I certainly don't think I look any younger when I look in the mirror anyway."

Cage only agreed to do the movie when he knew that Scott would be directing. As an aspiring director himself with one film under his belt, (Sonny), was Cage asking for directorial tips during shooting?

"No. Nic doesn't need too much advice," says Scott. "He's very astute and very knowledgable about the history of film. I've seen the film he directed, Sonny, and it's very good. He knows stuff not just about American film but European cinema too. Which makes it easy when you're discussing his character and you mention someone like Jacques Tati and he knows exactly what you're talking about. We discussed Tati because essentially Nic's role is a comedic one. The film is a comedy. A mix of drama and comedy - a dromedy if you like. We had two choices, to make Nic's character comedic in the visual, slapstick sense, which I think would have insulted people who suffer from OCD or making the humour more subtle. Roy's condition is pyschosomatic, the problem was how far we go with it. I didn't want it to be sad. I wanted it to be amusing. The comedy in this film is all about not seeing it coming."

Matchstick Men is a certainly a departure for Scott and his epic style of film-making with movies like Alien, Bladerunner and more recently, Black Hawk Down and the gruesome Hannibal and he bridles at suggestions that he's the type of director who pays more attention to visuals than character development. (You begin your career by directing over 2,000 adverts and the critics won't let it lie). "I've always had that levelled against me and it's rubbish," he says. "Because I always take great care in the casting of my movies and you develop good characters with good casting. "People say I pay too much attention to the look of a movie but for God's sake, I'm not producing a Radio 4 Play for Today, I'm making a movie that people are going to look at!"

"I don't think there have been any memorable films this year and I think that's down to poor scripts, not technique. It's very difficult to find good scripts in Hollywood any more."

As well as a 3 disc, DVD release of Bladerunner with extra footage scheduled for sometime next year and a re-edit of Alien, Scott is currently involved in preparing for the shooting of Gladiator 2. "The script is written, with a release date planned for early 2005," he says. "We know exactly which direction we're going in. It's the next generation. Roman history is so exotic that any period would be fascinating. It'll focus on Lucilla's son, Lucius. I'm not focusing on the gladiatorial battles. We've done that and I wouldn't touch that again. This time it's more about politics. Politics is very interesting and always leads to conflict. We're keeping off the religious side though. We managed to film Gladiator without once mentioning Jesus Christ. I think in the current climate, focusing on religion may be seen as contentious."

Andrew Panos