Do you think the character is a straightforward villain, or does that ambition lend a certain ambiguity to it?
You know, I never saw him as a villain to be honest. I saw him as a kind of carrier of war; from a modern perspective, warmongering people are considered villainous, but I think in the brutality of the period we’re talking about, he would have been hailed as a hero or a champion, because he’s pursuing his agenda. But yeah, it was an incredibly kind of metallic taste in the mouth to work at that level.