People are much better at coining phrases to insult a movie than support it 
British actor Nick Moran sprang to fame with a starring role in Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels, then went on to carve a niche for himself as one of Britain's young, up-and-coming actors in Rancid Aluminium, Christie Malry's Own Double Entry. Since then he's been travelling across Europe and American building his career, briefly returning to home territory with Spivs, a London-set thriller about human trafficking.
Are you ever worried about being typecast in gangster roles?
Spivs isn't a gangster role, it's just this little conman. The only similarity to Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels is the accent, I guess. I mean, I've played all kinds of roles, from CIA men to paranormal mediums, to card sharks, musketeers, and policemen, but the role everyone always thinks of is Eddie from Lock, Stock... Then I get lots of people confusing me with other actors saying "Oh I saw you on the telly", but I don't do TV. They're always going "Oh yeah, you're that bloke from Lock, Stock..."
How much experience of conmen do you have?
Colin [Teague, the director] gave us this very good book about conmen with a really great glossary of all the terms. It's just like doing telesales really: you lay down all the options, then you come in with the "confirmer" and the "gold brick" - that's when you promise one thing then hand over something else. These are all telesales practices! I'm sure whoever invented telesales must have been a con artist first! It is exactly the same process of building trust and familiarity. But I've never conned anyone before, except for a couple of casting directors! And maybe a few audiences: "I've seen his new film, I want my six quid back! They said it was brilliant in the paper!"
Your co-star, Kate Ashfield, is pretty hot at the moment isn't she?
Kate's lovely. We did Christie Malry together, and so we're familiar with parts of each other that most physicians aren't. She's a really dear friend of mine. If Kate's doing it, I'll do it and vice versa. I'll happily keep doing films with Kate Ashfield for the rest of my life. She always looks like she's telling the truth, she never forces anything. Everything is effortless and honest with her.
Do you find that people are harder on British movies than American films?
Oh yeah, definitely. I've done so many films that have gone theatrical over here and people are so scathing. My Nan used to have that attitude: "When are you going to get a proper job?" There's this very British attitude about not letting people be better than the kids next door. It's such a shame. Spivs is a great movie whether you love it or hate it. It shouldn't be treated with that British disdain because it's a British film. People are much better at coining phrases to insult a movie than support it. It all goes back to Oscar Wilde, I guess. Just judge it on its merits without having a preconception that it's going to be crap. But then one of the good things about coming from this country is that the audience is so hard: if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere.
You're shooting The Drop with Billy Zane and Michael Madsen at the moment...
It's Kelly's Heroes meets Saving Private Ryan. The backdrop is the armed invasion of A Bridge Too Far: we crash-land off course and find out that the SS has been pillaging Dutch artwork and has it stashed in a booby-trapped barn. It's a wonderfully elaborate caper. It's going to be a big, big movie - us showing the Americans how to make a war film without them rewriting history and claiming to have won it for us, thank you very much. It should 'not suck' - plus it's the same producers and production company that made Spivs. So it's bigger and better things - more money and more toys to play with. We've been shooting Bren guns and firing bazookas over the last couple of weeks!
And isn't there also a movie called Soccer Dog in the pipeline?
[Laughs] Soccer Dog is a kids film that I had to do for Sony. It's about a dog who learns how to play football. We filmed it in LA, but it's set in Scotland and I just stagger around doing the worst Scottish accent in the world. It's the same dog who was in The Grinch, and he's the star! It's made for ages between seven and ten, so anyone else watching that movie had better have a ** good excuse. But I'm not suicidal enough to turn down the lead in a Sony movie!
Spivs is released in UK cinemas on Friday 24th September 2004.
