Although he said he'd never play a bad guy again, Sean Bean is back with a vengeance in his new role as the iconic John Ryder in the remake of The Hitcher. He tells STEVE PRATT why he thought he'd played too many gentlemen.

SEAN Bean is reminded that he once said he'd never play a bad guy again. "Well, I changed my mind," says the Sheffield-born actor. "I must have gotten fed up with playing gentlemen."

The comment has been prompted by his latest screen role, as an enigmatic stranger terrorising a young couple who give him a lift, as well as killing men, women, children and cops en route.

In the remake of The Hitcher, he takes over the role of the mysterious John Ryder from Rutger Hauer, who made such an impact in the original. Bean has never hitched himself. "I don't think I'd like to get in anybody else's car, actually," he says.

"A lot of kids go off hitch-hiking in Europe during their gap year. I suppose it's a relatively safe thing to do. I don't know if I'd let my kids do it, though. Actually, I know I would mind. I wouldn't tell them to get in a car with anybody. I just think it's a weird thing to do, to get into a stranger's car."

Bean admits that playing Ryder was fun. "It was pretty focused and pretty intense because of the nature of the film," he explains.

"But it was also a lot of fun.

Because I was doing such wicked and horrible things to people, it was nice to have a bit of a joke about it inbetween. Otherwise, you just go absolutely mad. At the end of the day, we have a few beers, play some music and... smash me hotel room."

He enjoyed the original Hitcher when he saw it in the cinema 20 years ago, but wasn't fanatical about it like some movie buffs.

Unfavourable comparisons between the old and the new versions don't worry him. "I just saw it as something new that we were doing.

I saw the film once before, as I said, and thought it was a good film. I just wanted not to be influenced by it," he says.

He worked from the new script and discussions with the director, and things that happened on the spur of the moment during filming.

That way you're not guided by anyone else's performance, he feels.

"That's why I didn't want to see the original again, because I didn't want to be influenced by that.

"I mean, I've played Macbeth as well and actors have been playing that one for 500 years, so I suppose it's a remake every time you do it.

"I can't put my finger on the things that I brought to The Hitcher when I watch my performance. I found there are things in there that I wasn't aware of, which I found quite interesting and satisfying.

"This character is very deranged and very confused. I just played that confusion. You don't know what he wants. And I think that's what makes it scary."

He nearly didn't get the chance to play The Hitcher as the schedule conflicted with another film, Outlaw, he was shooting in England. In the end, they managed to work round it, although leaving him only a week to prepare for The Hitcher. He'd worked with producer Michael Bay before - on The Island - and had confidence that the project would be pretty well constructed.

His main preparation was working on his American accent. "I met Dave (the director, Dave Meyers) for dinner the night before we started filming. We had a chat about the part and were pretty much in agreement on how it should go. We shook hands and said let's get on with it'," he recalls.

"It was fast. I would've liked to have had more time. But that wasn't the case. Still, I felt pretty good about what I was doing. First day on set, I felt good, secure and confident."

Bean gets "a bit scared" watching scary films but quite likes the feeling. The Exorcist was the film that really terrified him, when he was about 15. What really scares him is his beloved Sheffield United losing on Saturday afternoons. He goes to see his team as often as he can and is a director of the club.

He would have loved to have played football for a living. He describes his soccer skills as passable but not great. As a kid, he always wanted to be a football player. Then at 14, he "just realised the ball wasn't going in the right direction any more - I knew I wasn't as good as a lot of the other kids around me".

He still kicks around a ball a bit.

"I play five-a-side, now and again, when I go back to Sheffield. That's first love and last. That's true love," he says.

* The Hitcher (15) opens in cinemas tomorrow.