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Playing big, heroic characters with heart is always a lot of fun. I enjoy making movies like that, and a lot of people love to live vicariously through those characters.

I'm struggling with what is epic. People decided I was epic - if by epic, do you mean a big, heavy book? 'David Copperfield' is a big book - is it epic? Amount of time covered, length, drama, or story - that's the real appeal - if the story is long you have a better chance of becoming more connected.

I was never built to play the hero. Physically or emotionally... And they're not as rewarding to play. At least for me.

Every role is challenging in its own way, but the most challenging roles are the ones that are badly written - then it's completely up to you to come up with something that is interesting to the story and myself as an actor.

I think, for every actor, the most challenging part of playing a character, specially a real-life character, is to convince yourself that you are the character.

I don't consider roles like in 'Die Hard' what I do. This is like a hobby. It's fun. I had a good time. And I love being in a movie that people actually go see. But it's about things getting blown up. It's not about great character development.

When you get to the point where you're established enough that people link you with something, especially being an action hero babe, it's awesome. Because then you can fight the battles and have the crossbows and wrestle with swords and ride the horses because you're already believable; people see you in that genre.

When you play someone who is an iconic figure you can't go into it lightly.

Real-life people are often the hardest to play, people that you recreate who have actually lived, because you have to live up to people's knowledge of those characters.

I used to be under the impression that if a role wasn't difficult, then there was nothing happening. Then a director said to me: 'Ken, you've got to realise, acting can be fun, too.'