High stakes for dealer Clive

I play Jack, a croupier, a tuxedoed London blackjack dealer trying to fight off his attraction to sleaze and crime.

He is cynical, calculating - he flips his cards like weapons and doesn't give a damned thing away.

He is an aspiring writer making no headway - and to get some cash he takes a casino job set up for him by his gambler father who is working the circuit in South Africa. His father had trained him as a croupier and he knows all the tricks. He starts working nights in London and through it finds the true theme of his novel.

On this journey he has relationships with three women: Marion, his ex-policewoman girlfriend, played by Gina McKee, with whom he has a traditional relationship; Bella, another croupier played by Kate Hardie, who sees the world in a similar way to him; and Jani, played by Alex Kingston, who is a very intriguing and amoral woman gambler from South Africa.

It is a simple story but a complex film. Director Mike Hodges has written this modern film noir in a cunning and economical style and I liked the emotional world it reveals underneath the surface.

It opened in the US last year in April and became one of those English art-house films that turn summer-surprise indie hit. It grossed over $6 million. I didn't realise its impact until I went there and people were so enthusiastic. Real high stakes for me.