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NEW YORK -- Ben Kingsley is not easily intimidated. He didn't flinch or hesitate when Roman Polanski called to offer him the role of Fagin in Polanski's new version of Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist.
"He told me he was doing Oliver Twist and asked if I would be his Fagin. I said yes immediately," says Kingsley adding he and Polanski "have great affection for one another."
Visions of Alec Guiness's Fagin in the 1948 David Lean film or Ron Moody's singing and dancing Fagin in Carol Reed's 1968 musical Oliver! didn't deter him in the least.
Nor was he worried there are more than 20 TV versions of the Dickens classic in no fewer than 10 languages.
"Everyone knows Fagin is an icon. I accepted it would be my responsibility to make him real. I would have to give him flesh and blood."
Kingsley's starting point was a Jewish shopkeeper he knew as a child growing up in England.
"I used to buy stamps and old coins from him. He was hunched over and I remember he wore three coats that were tied around his waist with a piece of rope.
"I remembered his voice was pitched so high and he wore gloves with the fingers cut out."
The day Kingsley arrived for his costume fittings he recalls walking through the racks picking out three coats and asking for some rope.
Transforming his face was a bit trickier for Kingsley.
"It took us 90 minutes each morning. I had a false wig, beard and teeth and I let them paint my face but the rest is me.
"I distorted my face and my body to make the transformation complete."
Kingsley's physical and vocal contortions proved taxing because the actor stayed in character from the moment he left his dressing room each day.
"I never let the kids on set see me as Sir Ben Kingsley. I was always Fagin. I did it so that Roman didn't have to rehearse.
"I talked to them as Fagin. I taught them magic tricks as Fagin. When we ate together during break, I was still Fagin. "After a while they began staying in character as well. That's what I was after."
Kingsley admits this approach took its toll.
"It hurt my back, my knees and my own teeth, but I enjoyed staying in character.
Kingsley even drew Polanski into the game. "Every morning, I'd go over to Roman in character and ask him who he was and what he was doing. He would giggle. I could tell he was enjoying it as much as I was.
"Roman told me I reminded him of someone he'd grown up with. Someone of his grandparents' generation."
One of the pitfalls for actors playing Fagin on film or on stage is slipping into a demeaning Jewish caricature.
"That was never a concern for me," insists Kingsley.
"The yellow stars I have worn on three coats in Europe prevented that from happening," says Kingsley referring to three of his film projects.
He starred as Itzhak Stern in Schindler's List, Otto Frank in the TV drama Anne Frank: The Whole Story and in the title role of the TV movie Murderers Among Us: The Simon Wiesenthal Story.
"I also had Roman's personal story reverberating in my head. He grew up during the Holocaust, suffered so much and suffered so many losses."
Polanski directed Kingsley in the 1994 drama Death and the Maiden and the men remained close friends ever since.
"Roman always promised we'd work together again. It was a call I wanted to get."