"I have a whole month on set, and I'd like to make up for the movies I haven't seen yet," he says with a smile as he pays for the DVDs along with a couple of John Coltrane CDs.

It's a sunny, early spring day in Rome and the actor is brought to a halt by a young man. "I've seen you in Evilenko. May I shake your hand?" Marton is surprised to be recognized in spite of his long hair and the "medieval" goatee of a Christian crusader led by Liam Neeson (Godfrey of Iberlin).

He says, "This is nothing compared to what happened to Orlando Bloom in Spain. He has been practically assaulted by thousands of girls. We thought of it as a joke at the beginning, but it's not a joke at all..."

After playing the role of the investigating magistrate in Evilenko with Malcom McDowell, Csokas, the son of a Hungarian immigrant and a New Zealander mother, comes back to play the role of a handsome and (a bit) wicked music manager in Garage Days.

Is it true that on "Kingdom of Heaven's" set, you were under the risk of attacks?

I read this news in London's magazines and frankly, I was quite surprised. Either we didn't realize this or this news was unfounded. We work in a location of sand and rocks. If someone is drinking tea, you can see him from two miles away! I fear this is simply unpleasant anti-Arabian propaganda. Someone who reads such a thing would think that Arabians have no sensibility. Which is, of course, a total lie.

After "Lord of the Rings", "Kingdom of Heaven" is another epic movie...

Elves don't fight a lot, or at least, among themselves. In this movie I have a lot of sword fights.

Are you fascinated by swords?

It's always acting. If I had to kill somebody, well, things would be quite different. It's a discipline I enjoy a lot, but I approach it as if it were a dance. It is impossible to master fifteen years of sword techniques for just a movie. What I like are the movements. The more you repeat them, and the slower you repeat them overall, the more they become a part of you.

Do you think Ridley Scott will succeed in repeating what he did with Gladiator, to give new life to a genre?

I think Ridley will do something more. Kingdom of Heaven is a more political movie than Gladiator. This movie has an epic plot. It's inspired by real facts that may have been reconstructed in a not necessarily accurate way, but that offers an interesting perspective about the religion and faith of both more radical and more humane people. It has the proportions of a big epic story with battles, swords, and love, but at the same time, it offers something very contemporary to the audience. Ridley presents religions in a very balanced way - the difference between our constant search for the meaning of existence and our religious feelings on one side, and what the Church institutions want you to do on the other side. And the answer is different for each person. This is a good moment to stop and think about this issue - the search for life's meaning still exists. The question is, "Why should I die under the Christian flag while someone else has to die under another religion's flag?" This makes no sense to me. Kingdom of Heaven explores this question. Does it make any sense to kill and to die because of the differences among human beings?"

You go from big sets to smaller productions like "Evilenko" and "Garage Days". What is the difference?

Small sets can be more intimidating. Nervousness inevitably takes hold of you. The same thing happens on the big sets, but at the same time, you know you are not at the center of everybody's attention. I must say that the Star Wars experience was weird. We never got the whole script, and we didn't know a thing about our characters. We just had to act in front of a blue screen with some of the actors. In the end, they cut my part off completely. Painful, but instructive.

What do you think about "Evilenko" and Malcolm McDowell?

I was deeply touched by the humanity of the script (based on David Grieco's novel of the same name). Working with Malcolm has been an extraordinary experience. He is a very experienced actor... He is able to feel the mood of the whole movie. He was always joking to keep us alert, "alive". He makes things easier. He plays his role, and then it's as if he just closes everything in a bag. It is a quality I envy very much. I'd like to be able to behave like this one day.