Tell me about your involvement in "K-19: The Widowmaker" and the story itself.

I got a script from Kathryn Bigelow and I thought it was a powerful, exciting story and that the character I was being asked to play was intriguing, very different to what I normally get to play. And the film is unique, as far as I know, I can't remember another American film that tells the story of another culture without American characters in it. So in many ways it is an attempt to redress the point of view we held about the Soviet system at that time.

You seem to have had a great track record, your instinct for picking the kind of movies that you wanted to make but also the public wanted to go and see...

Well sometimes I've made films which were commercial by intention and other times I've made movies that were not commercial by intention - feeling that my bet was hedged by the fact that some of my films have been successful enough to do different ones.

"Star Wars" was a bit of a hit I believe.

That's the way I remember it, yeah! It gave me the opportunity to work - the films were not necessarily the best quality but they were immediate opportunities to go out and work which was what I was looking for. There were films like "Force 10 from Navarone" and "Hanover Street", but they were starring roles and so I got quite a lift out of "Star Wars".

Your "K-19" co-star Liam Neeson is now a "Star Wars" veteran, did you discuss your experiences?

Not one word I promise you, not one word!

But if need be I think you could take him with a light saber, could you not?

I would not like to find that out - Liam's a formidable foe and a great ally and I'd like to keep him as an ally!

There's increasingly strong rumours about a fourth Indiana Jones movie...

We have a script in production and, if it turns out as we hope it will, Steven [Spielberg] and I have saved some time in 2004 to shoot that.

In 2004 you'll be 62...

I think there's no necessity for the character to remain in a time capsule. What's interesting is the circumstances he finds himself in - the quality of his mind. Certainly the activity of it all is part of the fun and I think I'm probably still capable of a bit of that.

Are you surprised by the interest that people have in the minutiae of your life?

There's an obsession with celebrity I think, that's very damaging to the culture at large. I think I best understand it as people's interest in those that seem to have some effect over their lives. The problem is that in that area of celebrity journalism there's very little test for truth and there's so much rubbish that is not just hurtful to the primaries involved but to all the people [around them] that are hurt by that kind of thing.

You can watch the full interview on Film 2002 on BBC TWO, Saturday 26th October at 1.50pm.