Q: There was so much secrecy around the project in the beginning, was that tough?

A: I was just in my flat when someone put a gun to my head, said: "Read faster..." I'm a slow reader... I read the script... I was thirty pages in and I was like: "This is really great!" and it just got better and better...

It's rare thing to get intelligent scripts and scripts where you can't put your finger on what's gonna happen after ten pages in... When you're not aware of the characters or of what their journey are gonna be, what their motives are, so it's a page-turning, hopefully, it will be like that visually, and I'm sure it is, because Ridley is genius...

Q: Tell us a little bit about your character...

A: You're essentially trying to build a computer that has a physicality to it, that can respond and understand human behaviour. It's programmed to be able to incorporate itself within a human environment. So, what happens when you program that and the program then starts making its own connections and joins up to its own electrical linking to other areas and forming its own ego, insecurities, jealousy and envy?

What I thought was very interesting was that you have this guy who was on his own for two and a half years while everyone else was in cryostasis, so what did he do to amuse himself? The idea that there is something of a little boy there, and that he has to rely on his imagination to keep himself occupied, imagination is a very human trait.

The way that Damon wrote it, people treat him as a robot and there's a bit of contempt towards him because he has all the answers. He's hyper-intelligent. His physicality is more advanced than human beings. So, people don't really embrace him. He's sort of used and abused. How does that make him feel, if robots can feel? I didn't want to make a direct, definite choice. I played with the ambiguity. Is this robot starting to develop human personality?