Kevin Pollak started out as a stand-up comedian, and when you meet him, it's difficult to forget. For this pint-sized San Franciscan makes up for his lack in height with snappy one-liners and general joviality. Most people doing the interview rounds on the Majestic Beach at Cannes this annoyingly dazzling Sunday morning have clearly decided it's a case of dark glasses, muted tones and mineral water. Pollak, party-animal that he very obviously is, merely carries on where he left off last night, at The Usual Suspects party, a movie in which he stars as an explosives expert. Sitting down for this interview business, Pollak suddenly - and for no apparent reason - launches into the most perfect John Lennon impersonation since Ian Hart in Backbeat. "First of all", he says in uncannily accurate, nasal Merseyspeak, "let me just say that we didn't mean to say we were better than Jesus; we just meant we were better dressers..." If you think Kevin Pollak's face is familiar, that's because it is. He was Sarah Jessica Parker's brother (and Naomi Campbell's lover) in Miami Rhapsody. Before that, he was in Grumpy Old Men, A Few Good Men, Ricochet and LA Story. But back to The Usual Suspects, considered by many seasoned Cannes goers as the hottest film of this year's festival. Directed by Bryan Singer, it's a taut crime thriller, a brain-teasing, sometimes head-scratchingly complex jigsaw puzzle of a movie that kicks off with a New York police line-up of five felons, accused of hijacking a truckload of gun parts in the city's Queens district. So begins a dazzling mixture of flashback postmortem and in-your-face urban psychodrama with more than a few echoes of Reservoir Dogs, Stanley Kubrick's The Killing and even the Japanese classic Rashomon, with it's disposal of routine narration in favour of several point-of-view versions. Alongside Pollak's sassy bomb-boffin in the coolest gang-of-five for a long time are Gabriel Byrne's cop-turned-thief, Kevin Spacey's crippled conman, Stephen Baldwin's top-notch entry man, and Benicio Del Toro as Baldwin's unpredictable sidekick. So did pollak have to get to know about explosives for his role? He swiftly shifts around in his seat and fixes you correspondent with an unnervingly penetrating, glacial stare. "Maybe I did", he whispers, almost threateningly. "Maybe I did a little research. Maybe there's something under your seat right now. Maybe you'd better not get up until I leave." Pollak smiles winningly. "The research I do is to read the script dozens of times until I know every moment. I don't think there's any mystery in acting other than being in the moment." What excites Pollak most about The Usual Suspects is that it's a movie that demands a degree of intelligence on from the audience to suss out the spider's web plot. "I'm a rabid fan of cinema, and I go to the movies every day", says pollak, who names his current personal faves as Heavenly Creatures and Don Juan De Marco. "I haven't missed a day in 17 years, and there's a lotof crap out there. When I got the Suspects script, I was just completely enamoured with the notion that once again a film would force the audience to be a participant rather than just a witness. As a regular audience member, I find that a rare and a wonderful thing." But while he is as chuffed as the next thesp to jump on the promotional bandwagon for his own product, he is wary of hype for hype's sake, and he's clearly none too happy about the tag The Usual Suspects has been getting as "this year's Reservoir Dogs". "I think the similarities to Reservoir Dogs begin and end with five criminals being brought together to pull off a job. I think any other comparispons are dangerous. The style of writing and stroytelling is as different as Coppola is to Scorsese." Ah yes, Scorsese. Pollak has just completed filming in Casino alongside Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci and one Sharon Stone. Pollak sits back and takes a deep breath... "It's fact-based and it's a period of history that really hasn't been told", he gushes. "Yes, we've seen a lot of movies about gangsters, and yes, we've seen Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci have had fun before at the hands of Mr. Scorsese, and yes, Sharon Stone is an odd choice, but artists like Martin Scorsese are only on this planet for a short time, and should be appreciated for everything they do." "I had a great time making Casino", he continues. "The fact the film came to me as an offer was one of the greatest achievements in my life, because it was based on my previous work. It was an incredible opportunity." Indeed, it seems as though Pollak has suddenly arrived with a vengeance. As well as The Usual Suspects and Casino, he's on show in this month's Canadian Bacon, and will be seen soon in Chameleon with Anthony LaPaglia, and House Arrest with Jamie Lee Curtis. "I like to take on all different types of movie. I cherish the variety of this job. It's great that I'm so busy right now, and if I ever come unstuck, I guess I can always go back to stand-up comedy..."