Ben Kingsley: Iron Man co-stars are evil

Sir Ben Kingsley has joked that his evil Iron Man 3 character is based on “observing” his co-stars.

The 69-year-old actor joins the comic book movie franchise as villain Mandarin, the enemy of hero Iron Man, played by Robert Downey Jr.

The legendary star looks almost unrecognisable in the movie, sporting a long beard and with his hair tied back into a bun, and he joked that playing such a dramatic character was nothing new for him.

"I felt completely at home on reading the script!" he grinned to Cover Media at the London press conference for Iron Man 3 yesterday. "The many vices - and there are a lot of them - with the character formation of Mandarin was done through character observation on my part. I won't name names but some of the people might be in this room now. It was a beautiful script, and there was very little deviation from it. I loved the writing, and with Mandarin, we followed it pretty much to the letter."

Iron Man 3 hits cinemas from today and also stars Gwyneth Paltrow, Rebecca Hall, Don Cheadle and Guy Pearce.

The talented cast, already familiar with the Iron Man franchise, helped Ben fit in on set.

"As a compliment to the rest of the people at the table, the welcome they gave to a new boy was extraordinary," he gushed.

"It was a measure of their competence and the joy in what they do and in what they've achieved with the franchise, that the welcome they gave me was so assured and confident. It was extraordinary; I felt like part of the team and they made it a good experience for me."