Ralph Fiennes has revealed that he was drawn to the different strands of the character Coriolanus.
The actor is set to make his directorial debut in January with the adaptation of the William Shakespeare play, a movie that he also stars in.
It is a character that Fiennes is returning to after playing him on stage but it was the different aspects of his personality that made him want to reprise the role.
Speaking to Moveline the actor said: "It's mostly very personal. There are two strands, I suppose. One is the actor - I played it on stage, and I felt very drawn to the confrontational nature of him and the piece."
"And maybe there's a sort of anger involved about the continual dysfunction of society, and its continual patterns of political turnaround and endless, endless conflict.
"And the play and Coriolanus himself punch through that. I mean, I think the play is a tragedy, properly. But the sort of evisceration it leads to is... I feel like we're always on track to these repeated eviscerations in how we are as a people - as humankind.
"I'm afraid the lack of hope in it was appealing to me,"
Fiennes is joined by an all star cast for the movie as Gerard Butler, Jessica Chastain and Vanessa Redgrave are all set to star.
And 2012 will be a busy year for the actor as he will star in Clash of the Titans 2 as well as beginning work on new James Bond movie Skyfall.
Coriolanus is released 20th January.
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