What drew you to the role and to the script?

Mainly James Gray. He knows what he wants and that's a huge plus to me because quite often you work with a guy and you get halfway through it and you realise they have no idea whatsoever. But he had an idea. And I'd rather that than - even if I thought the idea was completely wrong - it's one idea. And he was a straight mover, very precise. And very easy to work with which was really nice. That and the cast I loved - Joachim, Mark, great.

Tell me about your character. What is his role in the movie?

He's very Aryan I think. I don't want to be insulting when I say that, but my father was. I think he imagines himself as Prince or King of this kingdom. Which in practice was a very small one and he's not very much of a king. But he's all about make up, his clothes, his family and because of that the core of this dysfunction stems from this lack of strength of the family.

Do you like the character?

I don't like him, he's not a nice man. As written. I don't think you can really extract a lot of sympathy or try to even look for it. The only sympathy thing is he's character-flawed, he's flawed. He has no strengths other than what he believes to be strength, which is power of money, and being a boss. I know some people like that.

Read what Joaquin Phoenix has to say about "The Yards".