In The Twilight Saga: New Moon, due out later this year, Michael Sheen takes the role of Aro, head vampire of an ancient coven that rules the vampire world. We talked to him recently, and asked for the lowdown on a bloodsucking role that's a far cry from his recent run of real-life figures.

"I'm all done on it; I had a great time," he told us. "It was nice to go in and not be playing the main part, just go in for a few days and play this really really extraordinary character. I remember I was thinking, 'Oh, there's a bit of a Child Catcher here [from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang]; bit of the Blue Meanie from The Yellow Submarine; bit of Olivier from Richard III. There was a bit of all kinds of stuff."

He also talked about director Chris Weitz.

"It was great to work with Chris Weitz; it was a really funny set, really relaxed. We had a lot of things in common, and hopefully we're going to work together again soon doing something. That might be the thing that I direct, I don’t know yet, you never know."

And the rest of the cast? "It was quite intimidating being on the set with so many young, beautiful people. That was quite extraordinary being the old, ugly one amongst loads of young, beautiful ones. It's not something I'm used to really. Not because I'm young and beautiful but usually there's loads of old, ugly people around me. It was quite encouraging to see how Robert and Kristin are committed to it, how much they put into it and how serious they are about it. They don't take it lightly at all so that was great to see."

So, from playing a werewolf in the Underworld movies to a vampire here, it sounds like Sheen's got the undead pretty much covered. One thing's for sure: his description of his character has got us interested. What do you think? Is he your Aro?