I'm a show-off," admits loan Gruffudd (pronounced Yo-an Griffith),"but a goodnatured one. I'm also indecisive, stubborn, passionate, loyal,a good mimic and I hate confrontation. Is that enough?"

Quite enough from the Welsh actor who has risen from regional daytime TV soap opera status to playing tough guys in Disney movies. He's a Welsh hard nut. In the last four years the 27-year-old has racked up an impressive list of period costume roles on screens small and large: Titanic, Wilde, Great Expectations and Hornblower. And he's all set to do it again when he stars opposite Nick Moran in Anotherlife, a true story from theTwenties about a love triangle which ended in murder.

I suppose the way I look lends itself to the parts I've played. I've got quite a classic face." And a classical training too,from RADA, where he learnt the classics and the Method - "a very selfish way to work"- and dreamt of fame.I used to imagine myself on horseback in a western, getting the girl and holding the gun. Now I just want to be recognised as a good actor. The fame part doesn't interest me."

Even so, Gruffudd is no stranger to the fame game. He's a "TV heart-throb" favourite of the tabloids, a former paramour of All Saint Natalie Appleton, and his face is plastered across hundreds of websites such as the "League Of Obscure British Actors" and "Clare And Sarah's Almost Welsh Site." But unlike many of his contemporaries, he's wary of the pitfalls."There's a huge difference between fame and celebrity. With fame you have mystique. Leonardo DiCaprio is exceptionally famous but no one really knows anything about him. I do not aspire to that tedious party circuit."

So who does he aspire to be? "Oh,the usual crowd - Richard Burton, Anthony Hopkins - and Eclward Norton." He reserves particular praise American HistoryX star. I like everything he's ever been in. "Anyone else? "Cameron Diaz. Why? In an obviously aesthetically pleasing way," he says, smiling wryly.

Just as Diaz confounded typecasting with dowdy turn in Being John Malkovich, Gruffudd is soon to appear in Very Annie Mary, a present comedy opposite flatmate and fellow thesp Matthew Rhys, playing a couple of gay coffee shop owners obsessed with musicals.

Gruffudd's own sartorial taste is a little more tasteful than the tight T-shirts and shellsuit bottoms he sports in the film. But a camp note did creep into one of his occasion, shopping sprees. "I've just bought myself a man's bowling bag in black from Prada. He admits. It is essentially a handbag but I'm used to my friends laughing at me in the pub. Last time I bought myself an expensive leather jacket,they all sang TV cop soundtracks at me when I sat down for my pint."

Catherine Haym