Paul: So, this is a very unusual role for you because you've never done, with special effects.  What were your biggest challenges on Spider-Man?

Molina:  Well I suppose the biggest challenge is always to match what you do with the material and in a sense, rise to the occasion and understand what the material is.  When you go into a movie that has such a huge emphasis on special effects, the relationship between the actor and the material changes.  It's not like doing, say,  a little movie like Coffee and Cigarettes which basically is two guys sitting around and talking.  You know, your relationship to the event changes and you have to, in a sense, surrender yourself to that. 

Paul: Were you reticent to take on such a big movie?

Molina: No, I wasn't reticent at all.  I mean, I was glad for the job and happy to do it.

Paul: Did you pursue the role, or did they pursue you?

Molina:   I dunno, I don't think I was pursued.  It would be very flattering, very self-aggrandizing if I said they chased me all over Hollywood.  No, I think I was on a list of possible candidates and the studio went through the usual process of elimination and I ended up getting it.  But the other actors on the list would have been just as wonderful in the part.

Paul: Talk about getting the weight off weight off?

Molina:  I haven't lost it yet, quite.  I'm still working on it.  It took two weeks to put it on and two years for me to lose it.

Paul:  Is it true you sang "If I were a Rich Man" in entire getup with the puppets?

Molina:  I sang that one line just as a kind of joke at the end of the day.  Just for a gag, but I did do it yeah.  But it was a little gag for the crew, that's all.

Paul: But what are you doing to take the weight off.  You look very good.

Molina:  Well, thank you very much.  Are you flirting with me?  I've just been trying, you know, just watching what I eat and trying to exercise.

Paul: Not the South Beach diet?

Molina:  No, not the South Beach diet.  I've never heard of it.  I don't know what the South Beach diet is.  I suppose what I'm doing, is the old fashioned thing and just cutting out bread and potatoes.

Paul:   But doing Broadway must keep you fit.

Molina:  Doing a musical on Broadway certainly helping me keep the weight down.  I mean I think, you know, it's, physically it's hard work so yeah that's helping, definitely.

Paul: Is this the first time that you've had a super hero action figure?

Molina:  Yes it is.

Paul: And how strange was that to see that in…

Molina:  It's strange, cause it looks nothing like me.  I mean, facially, the character, they've been very flattering.  They've given me cheek bones which I don't have, they've got my nose, and also they've given me pecks which I've never had in my life.  You know I've got middle-age man tits but they were very flattering.

Paul: Was there any thought as you went through the movie, cause I guess in the comics you've also got this incredibly developed physique with pecks, that they would put a breast plate on you or something.

Molina:  No, we never discussed the possibility of a breast plate.  That was never part of the negotiations as I remember.  But my manager's right behind you.  Maybe she can fill you in.

Paul: What was strange about wearing that costume and, as an actor, how tough is it ?

Molina:  Well it's only tough in the sense that it is constricting but what you have to do is kinda find a way of dealing with it. I very quickly discovered that I couldn't bend and turn and shift my weight and twist in quite the same way.

Paul: What about bathroom breaks?

Molina:  Oh, we had plenty of those. Yeah.

Paul: Well, what about interacting with the puppeteer arms, and I guess the CG sometimes.

Molina:  Yes, it was a mixture of practical puppeteer arms, CG and animation.  Well, we had a fantastic team of puppeteers, about 16, 15 guys and one woman and a wonderful choreographer, a guy called Eric Hayden who essentially designed the movement in a way, and the puppeteers and myself, we worked together very closely over a series of weeks to try and develop a sort of, how can I put it, a kind of vocabulary of movement, a language if you like, so we could do great big things, like, you know push a hole through a building but at the same time doing delicate things like taking off a pair of glasses or lighting a cigar or even, one shot we did which I don't think we ever used it, we actually had one, one of the tentacles came out and wiped away a tear so we had a really wide range of possibility. I think I'm right in saying as a general rule, all the times you saw the arms in close or medium shots, they were puppeteered.  The times it was CG or animated was whenever you had big wide shots.

Paul: Did the puppeteers ever have fun with you?

Molina:  That's none of your business.   That will go with me to my grave.  We had a lot of fun.  We actually, we ended up, we got very close cause we were working together every day and we actually gave the tentacles names.

Paul: What were they?

Molina:  Let me see if I remember.  The two big ones, the ones down here were very male, they were the ones that kinda broke through things.  There was Harry, Larry, Flo and Mo.

Paul: How long did they take to put on and take off?

Molina:  Well the whole thing from suit to nuts, like including all the make up and everything was probably about two, two and a half hours.

Paul: Any parallels between this character and Tevye?

Molina:  No, no.

Paul: Did any of the tentacles sing along with you, [inaudible[.

Molina:  No, I sang.  The tentacles just watched on adoringly. 

Paul: I heard that might have been filmed.  Was that filmed?

Molina:  It might have been, who knows.  I mean I just did it as a joke.  It was at the end of the day, we were all exhausted and I just happened to be doing this shot where I was like coming up from the gurney and the tentacles were doing that and I just went into it for a joke, just to kind of, you know, just to get a laugh out of the crew.

Paul: Did you and Donna Murphy talk about Broadway?

Molina:  Well we talked a lot about theatre cause she was getting ready to do Wonderful Town and I was getting ready to do Fiddler so we talked a lot about, what was going on in Broadway and, although I'd never met Donna before, we had lots of mutual friends in common so we'd sneak off and talk about who's doing what or who's doing who, all the usual Broadway stuff.

Paul: And who IS doing who?

Molina:  Well again, that will go with me to my grave.  But it's never who you think it is, I've discovered.

Paul: What personally do you get a bigger kick out of, doing a Coffee and Cigarettes or a Spider 2?

Molina:  Well, it's a bit like if you love fruit, it's a bit like choosing between a really delicious mango and a really fantastic pear.  You can enjoy both of them equally.

Paul: OK, we're also getting Prick Up Your Ears this month on DVD, now.

Molina:  Oh really, I didn't know that.  Oh well.

Paul: How important was that movie to you?

Molina:  Oh, I haven't talked about Prick Up Your Ears for years.  Well it was important because it was the first leading role in a film I think I'd done.  I mean, up until then, I'd done small parts or supporting roles and that was the first time I'd had a leading role and it was at the time, quite a ground-breaking movie and it was dealing with a subject which nowadays seems almost sort of kind of almost blasé. 

Paul: Did you have any trepidation about doing that film?

Molina:  No, not at all.  I've never been, I've never been nervous about, I suppose you're asking about the scene where I'm having sex with a man?  I suppose that's what you're asking about.  I've never found that, I've always been more nervous about having sex with a woman on film and I think, speaking as an enthusiastic heterosexual, I think it's because, if you're a straight guy making out with a guy, it really is acting and there's no chance that you're suddenly going to find yourself embarrassingly aroused whereas if you're a straight man and you've got to do a love scene with some gorgeous actress, there's always the possibility that little Fred Jnr suddenly gets a bit warmed up.

Paul: Has that ever happened to you?

Molina:  It's never, it's actually never happened.  I'm merely speaking hypothetically of a possibility whereas man on man action would not excite me at all.  And also, it's, I was playing a character but Gary Oldman's a good kisser by the way.  Just by the by.

Paul: How much more of Fiddler on the Roof is there for you?

Molina:  I'm contracted 'til, certainly until the end of the year.

Paul: Would you do more Broadway?

Molina:  Certainly.  Sure, when, as and when opportunities come up.  I mean Fiddler's always been a big part of my life, I've been very lucky that I've always managed to balance films with theatre.

Paul: How do you keep something like this fresh, though?

Molina:  Well, that's part of the discipline.  That's part of the job, you know, it's part of the job is doing that, is arriving at each performance with a real desire to make that one the best one you've done, and when you lose that, then it's time to quit really.

Paul: Do you still make your home in the U.K.?

Molina:  No, I make my home here now.  Very proud to say I'm an American citizen now and I have been for a couple of years.

Paul: Which coast?

Molina:  Here, L.A.  I live here.

Paul: Did you read the Marvel comics as a kid?

Molina:  I did.

Paul: Or were you familiar with Doc Ock already.

Molina:  Yes to the first question, no to the second one.  I did read them when I was a kid and I collected them a little bit.

Paul: Which ones?

Molina:  Marvel comics.

Paul: Just any of them?

Molina:  Yeah, whatever I could get my hands on.  I don't remember reading any Doc Oc stories at that time.  I don't remember him as a character when I was actively reading, but I was always.

Did you look at any of the books?

Molina:  Yeah I went back and checked out, I was curious to see how he was drawn because he changed.  I think Doc Ock first appeared in the mid-60's and depending on who was drawing him, he changed.   He went through various changes but the one thing that stayed constant was this wonderful, kind of slightly sardonic, almost cruel sense of humor that he had and we tried to maintain that in the movie cause both Sam and I thought that was the really interesting quality.

Paul: Any important stuff in Spider-Man 2 that didn't make it that will be on the DVD?

Molina:  Oh, my nude scene?  My nude scene, yeah, in that scene I had five tentacles.  We lost a nude scene.  No, no, to be honest, there wasn't anything important; there was pretty much everything in it, there were a couple of little linking sequences, a couple of little linking shots that got cut but nothing that kinda made me go, Oh God, you know, they've torn the soul out of my character or anything like that.

Paul: Is there anything you're hoping to do film wise?

Molina:  Film wise?  Not at the moment, I'm, there's nothing sort of definite. I'm reading scripts.

Paul: When you watch the first Spiderman film, I think everyone saw it in a different way. What worked for you?

Molina:  I think what worked for me in the first movie was the same thing that I think works for the second film which is, Sam's ability to weave together like a love story and like the back stories with JK Simmons's character for instance, with all the action and all the set pieces that you know obviously are part and parcel of this kind of movie.  So Sam clearly understands the simple premise that a movie which was just a series of actions and sequences would be a very rich diet and ultimately one which audiences would get bored by it I think, so you have to sort of season it and leaven it with something else. What was so successful in the first film was the balance between those different elements so that you got interested in them equally so the love scene or the quiet talking scene wasn't just like, oh you know we'll get over that film, you know, we'll have to wait a few minutes, then we're back, you know that they carried equal weight and equal importance in the telling of the story.

Paul: Was there ever any talk of you keeping your British accent and making the character British?

Molina:  Except for the fact that he's an American character which, I mean, there, we did discuss it very briefly whether he should be British but then we've very quickly realized that (a) that was going against, there's no suggestion in the comic book history that the character is anything but of that place, presumably New York and also my feeling was that if we gave him a British accent, it's a bit like giving it away right from the start.  It's a bit like, carrying a great big sign that goes "movie villain" and underneath that, like "Alan Rickman wasn't free".  We kind of felt that suddenly having, oh Peter Parker, hello.  You know.  It's like, it kind of tips it, you know what I mean, it just tips it a bit.

Paul: Is there a stage character you have a yearning to play?  A theatrical character you haven't played yet and you'd like to play?

Molina:  Oh well, there are loads really.  There are loads I'd like to play but the only one that I'm saving up is Leah. 

Paul: You saw Christopher Plummer's Lear?

Molina:  I saw Christopher Plummer's Lear.  I loved it, loved it.

Paul: Are there any Joe Orton characters you'd like to play.

Molina:  Well I'm too old now.  Mind you I could play Inspector Truscott.

Paul: The nasty cop.

Molina:  The nasty cop in Loot because a lot of these characters were so young and I'm too old for most of them now, but Truscott, maybe there's a Truscott in my future.

Paul: How would you compare the sets of a Coffee and Cigarettes with a Spider-Man?

Molina:  Well, no, I suppose there's a different approach in terms of discipline; the discipline is different.  But the tools, I always use a rather simplistic analogy like, I often say to people this, it's a bit like being a plumber, you know, that one day you might be working on a very intricate shower head, the next day you might just be clearing out a a rather nasty toilet drain.  It's the same plumber that does the same job and the tools are basically, they're different but they come out of the same box.

Paul: What's it like working with Jim Jarmusch?

Molina:  I hated it.  Mean, selfish, horrible, I'm kidding.  Jim's wonderful.  No I've worked with him before.  I did a movie called Dead Man with Jim.  And I've worked with his girlfriend, Sarah.  Sarah Driver, so it's like a kind of family affair.

Paul: How did you find Sam as a director?

Molina:  Well, it's essentially the same thing.  It's all about story telling and he's a wonderful story teller and he has a great respect for everyone else's, what everyone brings to the process, you know.

Paul: Were you at the Comic Convention last month?

Molina:  The one in Philadelphia?  I was supposed to be there, I was going to go there on the Saturday but they had to helicopter me in but it got cancelled at the last minute because of the weather.

Paul: Are you prepared for the comic book fans coming up to you?

Molina:  They already are, they come to the stage door at the theatre in New York and you know, it's great.  There's a very big constituency out there of very loyal, very serious fans and these are the guys, men and women, who they're the ones who'll buy, they'll go and buy tickets and see the movie three, four or five times. 

Paul: Have you seen the film?

Molina:  Yeah, I saw it in New York.

Paul: I'd love to know what you thought of your character with all the CGI added to it.

Molina:  I loved the look of it, I thought it was fantastic, a great job.  I thought they did a fantastic job in all of that.  It's so, seamless.

Paul: How interested would you be if Sam called you and asked you to come back and do a cameo in Spiderman 3?

Molina:  I would be very happy.

Paul: If there was a new movie on Fiddler on the Roof, would you do that if it happened?

Molina:  Yeah.

Spider-Man 2 opens Wednesday.