I play the owner of a dog shelter called Second Chance Dogs Home. He's naive, loyal, almost dog-like - which is something the Glenn Close character, Cruella De Vil, takes advantage of.
Cruella appears a changed woman from the last film. She seems to have transformed into the new patron saint of the animal kingdom. But any trust in Cruella is misplaced. Slowly but surely she turns back into her old self. She sets up my character for the crime of stealing the Dalmatians and I go to jail. G?rard Depardieu stars as Cruella's friend, French fashion furrier Jean Pierre Le Pelt, and he also wreaks havoc on the canine world.
I've never been around dogs so I was nervous when I started shooting. But the dogs were brilliant - they were like actors. They were so professional - they'd hit their marks and keep quiet when they were told. I never got bitten but I was kicked once in the balls by one that got a bit excited and jumped up on me.
It's a $75-million Hollywood movie and I'm happy with what I've done. It's a different film to Hornblower and Great Expectations. I was allowed to use my own accent, although there were times when the director, Kevin Lima, asked me to tone it down a bit. The chance to do the film came when I was in the middle of shooting another film called Another Life. The audition for 102 Dalmatians came up quickly. I did it and forgot about it and was actually at the rugby World Cup in Cardiff when the news came through - so my mind really was on other things.
