Eccleston goes back to his roots

Christopher Eccleston takes up space. Standing at 6ft-something, with limbs that stretch a considerable distance from his torso, it's easy to see how he generates an imposing screen presence. And at 38, the actor has grown into his chiselled features; a shaven head adds to the air of noble intensity.

Intensity (and an allied disdain for the press) is something Eccleston is well-known for, although he laughs at the suggestion. 'I think that's a media invention. They like to put you in a box. There must be some actors who don't like doing press and I've become one of them.'

Whatever the facts, Eccleston is amiable enough today. After experiencing the sharp end of big budget Hollywood, he's back in Britain working on projects that matter to him. It's something of a return to first principles: from his breakthrough as Derek Bentley in Let Him Have It, through his psychotic-inthe-attic turn in Shallow Grave, to his high profile TV roles, Eccleston was always seen as a serious actor, fiercely proud of his working class Lancastrian heritage.

It was the role he seemed born to play - Thomas Hardy's Jude The Obscure - that caused a career crisis. Michael Winterbottom's screen version flopped: Eccleston's Jude was too dour for most tastes. 'I thought Jude was the summit of all I'd worked towards, but it failed commercially,' he shrugs. 'I tell you what, though, they'll stick that film on in 100 years' time and take a good look at it.'

The set-back meant Eccleston was forced into roles: 'To be honest, a year before I wouldn't have done [Shekhar Kapur's] Elizabeth. I thought the character I was being offered was completely one dimensional.'

His next move, however - starring in Jerry Bruckheimer's Gone In 60 Seconds - surprised everyone. 'After Jude, the work fell away and I sat at home for about 12 months; it was as much to get out of the house as it was for the money.'

Last year's Edinburgh Film Festival saw him return to his roots in Danny Boyle's experimental digital work Strumpet. This year, he's back with another left-field production, Alex Cox's A Revenger's Tragedy. Working with film-makers who are prepared to take risks makes him a better actor, he says: 'Alex shot Revenger's Tragedy hand-held - you can create a feeling of real freedom that way. It's more democratic and less like a religious ceremony.'

A Revenger's Tragedy receives its world premiere at the Edinburgh Film Festival tonight.