It was clear from the beginning that the only 'star' of this picture could be 'Katherine of Alexandria' herself, so I asked Nicole Madjarov (who plays her) to just be herself and not try to act, which was the only way I could see it working, especially being surrounded by so many powerful actors.

A lot of scenes have been shot already, but for the rest, we haven't finally decided on who the bigger names will be. I have my favourites like: John Voight (USA), Anthony Hopkins, and Tim Roth (who could no doubt handle the complex and vicious character of Emperor Maxentius). I admire actors like: Peter O'Toole and Pete Postlethwaite. Romanian actor Marcel Iures is another great actor, because he puts a sort of pressure into his screen characters which creates intrigue and tension. My absolute favorite actor of all time has to be Freddie Jones.

Finding enough African and Asian actors is a bit of a problem because there were African and Asian Roman legions based in York during the fourth century (bet you didn't know that) and so the search is on. Who will play Constantine? That's a difficult one and I constantly think about who could handle the part. As a director, I don't really 'direct' as such, more like. . . suggest ideas, after listening carefully to what the actors think. I guess actors feel respected by this and so they usually feel confident enough to get their scenes done in a couple of takes. We also need strong actors from the Middle East and they don't have to be well known, just believable. Polanski's 'The Pianist' is a good example of fierce realism and performance with relatively unknown names.

I've never understood why some directors require dozens of takes: I've never gone beyond four myself. We normally start turning over at 9 am, and finish around 4pm. I treat actors as professionals, as I would a gas fitter, and I've never known a gas fitter to ask if he could have twenty more attempts at fitting a boiler. My biggest concern is personalities, so If I see an actor washing a cup, then I'm at ease, because I always help out around the set.