How did you feel when you were offered the part?
JF: You get a part like this every five years if you're lucky, or once in a lifetime. Lorimer Black is an exceptional character and his story is gripping, involving and contemporary.

He's like a private eye because he's obsessed with detail. Objectively he's quite disturbed - a psychiatrist would have a field day with him. He's a guy who lives alone with a collection of antique helmets; who almost never relates to anyone; a man who has changed his name and pretends to be like whoever he's talking to. He's a man full of secret parts.

Why is he our 'hero' then?
JF: He's the hero because William Boyd has drawn his character with affection, humour and satire.

A sign of his mental turmoil is his insomnia. Do you have problems sleeping?
JF: Yes.

Do you have nightmares? JF: I had a nightmare last night about a film I'd done being ridiculed.

Is there anything embarrassing you do in your sleep?
JF: Yes, I talk very loudly and quite aggressively.

What can we learn from Lorimer Black's flaws as a character?
JF: Ultimately the most important question to ask of Lorimer is, 'is he a good guy or a bad guy? Can he be bought? Does he have a price?' These questions drive the whole piece along. We find out that everyone else will sell out and Lorimer - despite the fact he has the capacity to manipulate and be ruthless - is devastated. He does have a moral dilemma.

What's the worst job you've ever done?
JF: I worked as a toilet cleaner on a building site for a couple of months. When I announced I was leaving, the site manager asked where I was going and I said 'I've got a job in a theatre company.' He said 'so you're an ACTOR. And you'll talk about this time on my building site on Wogan -- go on, sod off.'

Does playing Lorimer mean you know all about the insurance industry?
JF: I do now.

So how much are you worth?
JF: The honest answer is - whatever the market decides at any given moment.

Have you ever had to make an insurance claim?
JF: Yes. I've had to claim my car many times because I'm a reckless driver. Just look at it. It's a 12-year old Golf that's beaten to bits.

Have you ever faked a claim? JF: No but a friend of mine had a holiday every year for 10 years by faking claims.

What's the most money you've ever dealt with?
JF: A suitcase full of fake notes that I was given in Reindeer Games. Dealing with money is always frightening.

Lorimer has a penchant for antique helmets - what's the most expensive thing you've ever bought?
JF: My stereo. When I left drama school I was 25 and had never earned more than £150 quid a week. I didn't even have a TV at the time. I was skint, skint, skint. Then I did Shadowlands and suddenly I was getting a few thousand pounds. It was like winning the lottery. So I rushed out and bought a stereo - which I still have.

Why does Lorimer need to disquise himself?
JF: Lorimer Black is trying on different versions of Englishness to see if they fit. All the other characters have chosen their identity. Lorimer is the only one who's playing with his.

But aren't his disquises a form of armor?
JF: Yes. He shields himself with perfectly drawn disquises at every juncture and is somehow protecting himself from himself, and from encountering other people intimately.

When was the last time you, James, wore a disquise?
JF: At a fancy dress party for my birthday. I made everyone dress as if it were 1968. To me that was the year of the May riots in Paris, the summer of love in California and was the moment of hope that I'd missed - being born in 1969. We'd all grown up in a cynical generation, so for one night I wanted us to pretend we hadn't. I wore an Afghan, massive flares and beads.

Have you ever actually lied about who you are?
JF: Yes. I often lie and say I'm not an actor if I'm on holiday or meeting people for the first time because people relate to you differently. People don't trust actors like they don't trust psychiatrists. And when I was in America for a year, I used to pretend I was American because I realized very quickly that if people thought I was British they wouldn't let me into their lives. The more 'like' people you are, the less guarded they are and the less they label you with their preconceptions. This is exactly why Lorimer does it.

So you change yourself depending on who you're with and what situation you are in?
JF: Yes, I change radically. Doesn't everyone?

How do you think the audience will relate to Lorimer?
JF: A lot of people will identify with Lorimer's aloneness and confusion and his quest to find his own identity. It's what a lot of people are experiencing. It's the temperature of the times in London. I felt when I read Armadillo that 'everything about this fits. This is me.' And that's the skill of the piece. That is so relevant to our times.

What is Lorimer's journey as a character?
JF: His journey is that he begins as an armoured man, incredibly well defended. Then he falls in love with Flavia (Catherine McCormick) and begins to feel emotionally naked. Then his father dies, which adds to his emotional vortex. William Boyd's narrative gradually strips him of his resources, his disquises until he actually loses everything. He's stripped bare and ends up completely naked and vulnerable.